The N Wars
by First Black Phantom
Summary: An unknown enemy invades dimension N. They strike without warning and make no demands. With such a powerful enemy, the heroes will have to work together, and search for the four keys that will unlock the power they need to defeat this enemy. -COMPLETE-
1. Prologue and Chapter 1: Mario's Invasion

This story was intended to have links to music that would go along with the events going on, but I do not know how to do that here, as the links disappear.

* * *

**Prologue**

There are some who say there are alternate dimensions, but to many it is merely fantasy. There could be an alternate dimension, where there is the same Earth as ours, and the same things have happened, except perhaps there are no such things as cats, or there could be an alternate dimension that is radically different, where there isn't even a place called Earth.

In our dimension, there are things that many people play called video games. Many of these video games have interactive stories with amazing characters. Perhaps, in other alternate dimensions, the worlds and characters in these video games are the reality.

One of those realities is known as dimension N, and in it is a one of the largest planets in existence. This planet is called Nintendo, and on it live many of the characters that people in other dimensions see on the Nintendo systems.

In our dimension, there is a fierce, unforgiving competition among video game designers. Many companies have been squashed by this competition. Perhaps, in a different dimension, this competition is manifested into a race of beings.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**Mario's Invasion**

It was a clear sunny day in the Mushroom Kingdom, so princess Peach and Mario felt like going out for a picnic, just outside the castle. Peach was resting on a sun chair with an umbrella above her, while Mario, after eating the picnic food, was playing a video game on his Game Boy.

"What is it you're playing, Mario?"

"It's called Black Phantom; it's about this boy who does stuff on this thing called an Internet, going by the name of Black Phantom."

"Don't think I've heard of that one." Mario and Peach continued to relax, but after a while, something quite unusual happened. The sky began to darken a little, and far up in the sky was a small, black vortex. Electricity was sparking all around it, and the swirling vortex grew. In less than a minute, the vortex had become enormous.

"What's going on? This isn't Bowser's work, is it?" Princess Peach said.

"I don't...wait, this looks familiar. Yeah, last I saw this was..." Before Mario could finish, large circular objects came flying out of the vortex. They were flat and round with a round hole in the center, and they were about as big as the width of Peach's castle. More and more continued to fly out, seemingly without end, but the worst was yet to come.

As most of the flying ships had flown out, a large, rectangular ship slowly came out. The rectangular area of the ship was larger than the castle, and behind it were two long, round tubes that came out from behind. At the end of the two tubes were large objects that look like claws.

"Peach, I think we need to get out of here." Mario's usual happy voice had become quite serious. Peach and Mario started running towards the castle, and most of her servants were running towards her.

"Princess Peach! Princess Peach! We must take you to safety!" As they got close to the castle, all of the flying ships had come out of the portal, and the vortex closed, making it sunny once again. The ships scattered and left in all directions, but one of the round ships stayed, hovering above the castle. As they were inside, everyone was panicking, so Peach spoke up.

"Everyone, please calm down. Surely, we must try to make communication. We can not be sure that they are here to harm us."

"But just how to you suggest we do that? They're flying high above us!" Toad asked.

"Toad, go get Mario a Wing cap. He can use that to fly up to them."

"Oh, of course!" Toad rushed off to grab a Wing cap.

"Mario, you will do this, won't you?"

"Of course."

"Good, I knew you would." Mario was always willing to help the princess, and he wasn't going to stop now, but he couldn't shake his gut feeling that they weren't here to talk. Once Toad returned with the cap, he put it on, giving him the ability to fly.

Mario walked out the door and stepped onto the bridge crossing the moat. With a running start, Mario jumped three times before he had the momentum to jump high enough to start flying. Once in the air, he went straight towards the flying ship just over the castle. He wasn't sure what to do, so he landed on top of it and looked for some sort of sign of life. Mario walked around hoping to find a door or a pilot, but he couldn't see anything but the flat surface of the ship.

Before Mario was about to give up, a row of drone guns sprung out from the ship and pointed straight at him. It looked like they were charging up to fire at him, so he didn't waste any time getting out of there. Mario ran to the edge and jumped off, and just as he jumped, he heard lasers being fired at him. Mario quickly flew back down and went to inform Peach.

The doors flew open as Mario came running in, panting.

"What happened? Are you all right?"

"We need to get out of here, fast!" Peach was stunned at the news, but the worst was yet to come. One of the servants who were looking outside rushed in with a horribly scared face.

"P-Peach! The ship, it's, it's going to attack us!" Everyone went outside, and saw that something was happening in the center of the ship. Several lasers crisscrossed the center, and it look like it was charging up to fire something very powerful.

Peach pondered what to do, and though she hated the thought of it, there didn't seem to be any chance.

"Everyone! We must leave the castle at once! Everyone take the jet, Mario and I will be riding the kart!" As everyone ran towards the Peach's private jet, Toadsworth came up to Mario to ask a favor.

"We're counting on you to take care of our princess, Mario, so don't fail us!" Mario nodded, and followed Peach. He followed her to the side of the castle where the garage was, and they hopped into Peach's kart.

"Why are we taking the kart? Wouldn't the jet be faster?"

"Yes, but there's no landing strip where we're going. This will do just fine." She started the kart and drove away from the castle and onto the racetrack just outside. Peach was not bad at driving the kart, and had occasionally beaten Mario himself. They sped down the track as fast as they could, and probably could have even broken the record, but such a thing did not enter their minds in their present situation.

"Aren't we trying to get away? Why are we going around the track? Wait a minute, we're going back towards the castle!"

"Don't worry, Mario. In case of an emergency, I had the track constructed to give us a quick escape." They turned the corner and were approaching the long ramp with boost pads on the ground that would send them over the river and onto the track just outside the castle. As they got near it, princess Peach flipped open a cover on the kart and pressed the button under it, activating their escape plan.

The ground began to shake, and the ground that was beyond the track at the jump opened up. Out from the ground rose a section of racetrack and connected with the existing track, making the jump longer, with a steeper incline and an even more powerful row of boost pads.

As they went up the track, they could see the round ship becoming very bright, and looked as if it was about to fire any moment now.

"Come on, we can make it!" As they hit the new set of pads, the kart increased in speed, and they were going faster than any other kart was even possible of.

Just as they passed the castle, they could see a bright beam coming straight down from the ship towards the castle, and a giant explosion resulted from it. A huge wall of fire was coming from the point of the explosion and was coming right for them. Mario could see from the rear view mirror that the flame was very close, but objects in mirror are closer than they appear. Just as they could feel the heat coming on them, they reached the end of the ramp, and flew off into the sky.

Please give me a review, thanks.


	2. Chapter 2: A Link to the Truth Part 1

**Chapter 2**

**Zelda: A Link to the Truth**

Mario and princess Peach didn't say much as they were flying through the sky in their kart. They had just escaped with their lives, and seeing the castle destroyed in the blink of an eye gave them a reason to be silent. After some time, Mario finally spoke up.

"So, uh, how long is this going to be? I mean, we've been soaring through the sky for at least ten minutes now." He was trying to lighten the mood.

"Can't say for sure, but it shouldn't be too long now."

"And, just where are we going?"

"Well, as you know, the Hylians are our allies. That ramp we just launched off of was built to send us to Hyrule castle in case there was ever an emergency like this. I'm pretty sure they would be willing to help us. It's been years since the Mushroom Kingdom or Hyrule has even requested assistance, though. Besides, Zelda is a very wise woman, and I'm sure she knows _something_ about who this new enemy is."

"Oh wait, I forgot all about Luigi! If I'm going to have fight against this enemy, then Luigi would be helpful, but he was vacationing over at Yoshi's Island."

"And that is some distance from where we're going. I'm afraid we can't pick him up or anything. Too bad."

They had been flying over the clouds for most of the time, and saw nothing but fluffy white. After a while, they started to descend below the clouds, and from there they saw the beauty of Hyrule. It was really quite a magnificent sight seeing the whole land from the sky. As they were falling straight for the castle, Peach pressed another button, and a parachute came out from the back, giving them a landing they can walk away from. They landed in the courtyard, and right when they got there, Zelda was already waiting for them. As they got out from under the parachute that fell on top of them, Zelda greeted them.

"Welcome Princess Peach, and Mario, it has been a while."

"It has, but we are grateful to see you. Um, were you expecting us?" Peach asked.

"Yes, I was."

"But how did you know we were coming?"

"Well, you see, last night I had a dream, and I believe it was a vision. In it, a great evil appeared, and darkness slowly covered the whole planet, and then covered the entire universe. This evil first appeared in Mushroom Kingdom, so I thought that you would come. Now that you are here, it only proves my suspicions."

"I'm afraid you're right. We were just relaxing outside the castle when the sky darkened and a swirling black vortex opened up. Hundreds of flat, round ships flew out, and a very large rectangle ship with claws came out of it. Do you know anything about who or why these people attacked us?"

"I'm afraid I don't know, but from my dream, I sense that this enemy doesn't come from our dimension."

"I thought that looked familiar!" Mario shouted out.

"Pardon?" Zelda asked.

"That portal; it's the same as when Sonic came to our dimension."

"Ah yes, Sonic. It wasn't until he appeared that we learned about alternate dimensions. There was the Final Destination stage that we use for Smash Bros. tournaments, but since it merely slipped through a dimension rather than entering it, we didn't really get to go into other dimensions. When Sonic came to live with us for a while, he told us about it, and we knew then." Zelda said.

"So our enemy comes from another dimension then. I still wonder why they would want to attack us, though." Peach said.

"Well, since Sonic travels between dimensions now and then, I think we should try to find him. If he has gone to the place where this enemy comes from, then he might know about them."

"Find Sonic? Man, that's easier said than done. He moves faster than any of us and he rarely stays in one spot for too long." Mario said.

"And the last I heard he left our dimension to explore a new one. It won't be easy, or perhaps even possible, but I think finding him is our best option."

"Well, I guess we better get started then." Mario said.

"Sorry, I'd like to help you, but I'm afraid we have our own problems right now."

"What is it?"

"Well, as you probably know, the Gerudo are all female. Because they are rather attractive, some people foolishly try to get into their hideout. Three days ago, a Hylian managed to sneak in and was taken prisoner. I don't know exactly what he did, but they've been angered so much that they're threatening to attack us. I've already sent Link and some of my knights up there to see if he can prevent them from doing anything."

"Hey, I can help." Mario said.

"Well, if you really want to, you can."

"It's no problem. We don't have anywhere to go right now, so I might as well do something while I'm here."

"Thank you. If you hurry, I think you can catch up to them at Gerudo Valley." Mario proceeded out of the castle. Once outside, he started to run to catch up. As he went through the market place, many of the people there stared at him. It wasn't every day that people ventured beyond their homeland, and Mario was definitely different from the Hylians. He walked across the gate and went into the large field of Hyrule.

It was a long run, but Mario finally made it to the entrance of Gerudo Valley. As he walked up the log and went towards the bridge, he could see Link on his horse with six soldiers.

"Hey, Link, wait up!" Mario shouted to him. As Link turned around to see Mario he got off Epona and greeted him.

"Mario! Good to see you! What are you doing here?"

"Long story. I heard you were in a bit of a situation, so I thought I'd help."

"You don't have to, but sure, thanks. The Gerudo occasionally get upset with us for some reason or another, so it's not a big deal as long as it gets settled quickly." As they crossed the bridge, ten Gerudo warriors came up to them.

"So, the Hero of Time comes to face us?" The leader Gerudo said in a fierce tone.

"And you would be?" Link asked.

"Shara."

"Tell me, where is the prisoner?"

"We executed him."

"What?" Link was shocked and angered.

"He deserved to die for what he did, and so will you!"

"Just what did he do?"

"It doesn't matter! You Hylians have angered us for the last time!"

"Surely the actions of one man can not be the same thoughts of an entire race. Please, let us settle this peacefully. Perhaps we could...." As the female warriors started to charge towards them their weapons, Link saw that the time to talk was over. Link yelled something out to Epona, and she fled the battle area.

The leader of the group charged towards Link holding two, large blades. She seemed to be the most skilled of the group, as everyone else fought the soldiers instead of him. Shara swung her blades at Link several times as he used both his sword and shield to block the blows, and for the most part, he was on the defensive.

One of the warriors equipped with a spear came to attack Mario. As she struck out at him with the spear Mario turned around and then jumped and did a backwards summersault over her. The Gerudo was surprised for how high he was able to jump, and Mario used that surprise to deliver a three-hit blow once he landed behind her. The blow knocked her down, and right as she stood up, Mario leapt for her head first, using his hands to jump off of her, knocking her down into the ground again.

She was beginning to feel sore from the hits, but she wasn't about to give up to some weird, short person. She faced her opponent and faked him by thrusting her spear at him, making him move to the right, but she then swung the tip at him. The metal point just missed his skin, but it had made a large slice in his hat.

"That was my favorite hat." Mario said softly, and then stuck his arms out and spun around like a tornado. The Gerudo tried to stab the swirling man, but as he tried to hit him, the spear was knocked out of her hands, and she was hit by an onslaught of fists.

Link swung his sword down at Shara, but she placed both her blades in front of her to block the blow. She was good, but Link wasn't fighting to his fullest. He felt that this whole situation was just a big misunderstanding, and that they shouldn't even be fighting.

Shara backed off a bit and then leapt towards him with both blades out. Link saw his chance, so he rolled under her and swung his blade at her back before she landed back on the ground. Because he didn't want to be fighting them, Link did not seriously injure her, but it was enough to make her fall down in pain. Link looked at the battle for a brief moment, and could see that the soldiers were not doing too well. They had made some minor injuries on the Gerudo, but the soldiers had more, though Mario seemed to be doing all right.

The battle could have gone on longer, but out of the blue, an explosion could be heard coming from the desert. Everyone looked to see what happened, and as they did, something big was speeding towards them, with several more, but smaller, explosions following it. It was only seconds before a giant ring-shaped object was flying above them, and as it went by, a small ball of light came down at them.

Link saw that the ball was coming right down on Shara, so he ran and grabbed her, carrying her out of the way. The ball exploded as it collided with the ground, but everyone managed to avoid it. Everyone looked back at the flying object and could see that it stopped directly over Hyrule castle. Shara then stood up, though bending down from the pain, and signaled to the other Gerudo.

"Everyone, retreat! We must see what happened to our land!" As the Gerudo warriors left, Mario shouted at Link.

"Link, we need to go back, hurry!" Mario said.

"What was that thing?"

"It's a long story, so I'll tell you on the way, now come on!"

As Link, Mario, and the soldiers made it to the castle, they could see all of the people from the castle town running out.

"Soldiers, stay here and watch out for the people."

"Yes, sir!" With the crowd of people making it impossible to enter through the gate, both Link and Mario ran up the two chains that raised and lowered the drawbridge, then jumped over the wall, and then jumping from roof to roof in the town to get to the castle.

"So you're saying that ship is going to destroy the castle?" Link said as they ran up to the door of the castle.

"Not just the castle. The explosion it creates covers a large area, and will probably wipe at least half of Hyrule!"

"Oh, man! What are we going to do?" Once they got to Zelda and Peach, Link tried to inform her what was happening.

"Zelda! They're going to...."

"I know, Peach told me."

"What should we do?" As Link looked up from the courtyard, he could see that the ship was close to firing.

"I'm not sure if it would work, but I could try to put a barrier around the castle to protect it."

"Then let's do it!"

"But if it doesn't work, then we'll all die! We could escape, but then Hyrule would be destroyed! The barrier would have to be very strong, and I don't think I have that kind of power."

"Then ask the sages!"

"The sages? That might be enough. All right, I'll do it." Zelda then reached out telepathically to the other sages. "Sages, can you hear me? Hyrule is about to be attacked, and we must act now. Please, lend me your power!" Zelda then raised her arms to the sky and a magical barrier surrounded the castle. The barrier was thin and transparent, but then it started to glow with the other colors of the sages.

Zelda looked like she was struggling as she put all her energy into sustaining their protection, and the ship was just about to fire. As the large, bright laser beam shot down towards them, they all held their breath in hopes that they would live. Just as the beam hit the barrier, the beam stopped there. The ship continued to shoot the beam, but it wouldn't pass through.

The glowing sphere that covered the castle then started to fold upwards from the ground, and started to encase the laser beam. Once the people piloting the ship realized that the laser wouldn't go through, they stopped firing, but as they did, part of the laser had become trapped inside the barrier. The ship started to ascend, but the trapped laser then shot upwards at the ship, and hit it.

The laser exploded and turned the ringed ship into a crescent ship. It was loosing power and started falling towards the ground behind the castle. The ship crashed so hard that no one on board would have survived.


	3. Chapter 2: A Link to the Truth Part 2

Once the barrier vanished, Zelda collapsed from exhaustion.

"Zelda!" Link and Mario grabbed Zelda's shoulders and held her up.

"Are you all right?" Zelda had drained most of her mana.

"I'm fine, just tired."

"Well, at least now we have a way to beat those guys!" Mario said cheerfully.

"I don't think so." Zelda said. "I used up most of mana trying to hold that, and I sense that the sages did too. If they attack us again anytime soon, we won't be able to protect ourselves."

"What else can we do?" Mario asked as they sat her down in a chair.

"Well, there is one thing, but you will have to pass many trials and travel great distances to do it."

"And what is that?"

"You see, there's a legend that has been passed down for several generations that tells of a great and powerful ship that can even sail the stars, called the Nintendo 64. It was built long ago to protect our planet from any evil that might come against us. Because it is so powerful, it can only be found if someone gathers the four keys. The keys, also known as the controllers, were entrusted to four different people, so that it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. One of those keys is hidden deep within Lost Woods."

"Really? I grew up there, and I never heard of such a thing."

"It is kept a secret and only told to people who need to know, and until now, you didn't need to know."

"All right, then we'll get the key. So how do we get there?"

After walking through the forest for some time, they finally came to a small, stone building with a stone door in front. Link came to the door and played the tune that Zelda had taught Link to play to open the door. The stone slid up and the entrance was open. As they walked in, Link was surprised at what he saw.

"Strange."

"What is it?"

"I've been in lots of temples and dungeons before, but I've never seen a place like this." The door led to set of stars that led down, but the strange thing was that the walls were made of metal and electric panels.

"Looks like something high-tech." Mario said as they walked down the dark stairway.

"Yes, but such technology isn't used here. Must have something to do with the people who made this place to guard the key." As the stairs ended, they found their selves in a dark room, and they couldn't see their hands in front of them. That's when Mario grabbed a fire flower from his pocket and held a fireball in his hand. With some light in the room, Link saw a torch on the wall, so he fired a fire arrow at it. When it lighted the torch, the whole room lit up.

"Looks like you activated the ceiling lights."

"Yes, and this place seems to combine magic and technology." As they looked around, they saw that the room had a door, and the floor had a pattern of lights, and the wall had switches on them. Mario went up to the door, but couldn't find any way to open it.

"What do you suppose we do?" Mario asked, but when he looked back at Link, he saw that he was pondering something.

"Those switches, and this floor. I think we need to flip those switches in the same pattern as the lights."

"Worth a shot." Mario and Link went to the wall and flipped the switches, and the door slid open.

"Say, good move." Mario said.

"Thanks." As they went through the door, they found their selves in a dark hallway, but just as they entered, several ghosts came flying at them screaming. Mario threw some fireballs at them and Link shot some ice arrows, but they didn't do a thing. As they got closer, Mario became scarred and ran out of the hallway. Mario looked back and saw that Link was just standing there.

"Link, look out!" Mario started to run back towards Link to get him out of the way, but the ghosts got to him first. Mario was confused, though, as the ghosts just went right through him.

"It's an illusion, Mario. Just a scare tactic." Mario walked down the hallway and the ghosts just went right through him as they screamed.

"Their screams are irritating, though." Mario said.

As they stepped into the next room, the door behind them closed, and a door above them opened up, pouring in water. The room was filling up with water fast, and was already almost to Mario's knees. Link quickly shot an ice arrow at the door, and the top froze.

"Whew, that was close." Just as Mario said that, the ice began to crack, and water again came pouring down.

"Mario, stand back!" Link took out a bomb and dropped it on the floor. As it exploded, the floor below it broke apart, and the water had a place to go. "The floor sounded hallow as we walked across it, so I figured I could make a hole for the water to go out."

"Wow, you're good at this stuff!"

"I've had plenty of practice." As they looked down the hole, it looked like there was only so much room, and the water was reaching back up to them. Just as it reached the top, however, the door above them closed, and the water stopped. The door in front of them then opened.

The next room was circular, and in the center was the controller. It was in a glass case on top of a pedestal. Link went up to it and used his sword to break the case, but his sword bounced right off it.

"Huh, I guess it's not exactly glass." They were thinking about how to open it, but the door behind them suddenly closed, and the room became dark. They weren't able to see a thing, but then another ghost appeared. This one was three times as big, and was glowing, which lightened the room a little.

"What, another illusion? Ha ha." As Mario stood there looking at it, the ghost swung his fist at him, sending Mario flying into the wall behind him.

"Mario, are you all right?"

"Ow. I'll live, but this guy certainly isn't an illusion." Link drew his sword and charged straight for it, but as he swung, his sword went right through it. The ghost then swung his fist at Link, making him fly into the wall.

Link and Mario got back up, attacking with a different strategy. Link shot a fire arrow while Mario threw a fireball, but they too went right through him.

Link had fought ghosts before, but he was able to hurt them. Link then thought that since it's a ghost, then it probably wouldn't be able to stand a light arrow. Link fired one, but it too went right through him.

"I don't understand, nothing can touch him, yet he can touch us." The ghost then yelled out a terrible scream, worse then several nails against a chalkboard. Link and Mario covered their ears, but it was still irritating. The ghost then lifted them both up by some sort of telekinesis, and pounded them against the wall several times.

As Mario was up against the wall, he noticed that there were four, small lights on the ceiling, and they were pointing wherever the ghost went. When the ghost let them go, they fell on the floor, and the ghost laughed at their pain. With his arms free, Mario through a fireball at one of the lights, though it hurt to do so in his roughed up shape.

When the fireball destroyed the light, the ghost's glow faded a little, and it screamed as if in pain. The ghost then swung his arm at Mario again, and he lost his firepower because of the damage he had.

"Link, aim for the lights up there!" Link fired an arrow at two of the lights, and the ghost screamed even louder as it became dimmer. The ghost was then about to slam his body on Link as he aimed for the third light. The ghost was only a few inches away from him as the arrow broke the light, and as soon as it was gone, so was the ghost. It disappeared instantly as like turning off a light. With it gone, the lights in the room came back on, and the glass around the key had vanished as well.

"Whew, glad that's over. Man, I've never seen anything like that. Just what have we gotten ourselves into?" Link said. He then walked up to the key and grabbed it. He then turned around and held it above him with his hands stretched out to the sky while looking at it.

"Um, Link, what are you doing?"

"Huh?" Link quickly lowered his arms and put the key in his pocket, looking slightly embarrassed. "Oh, uh, sorry, old habit. Well, what do you say we get out of here?"

Back at the castle, Link showed Zelda the key. It was an odd looking key, as it had three prongs on the bottom that you could hold, and at the front was a small rod that stuck out with a round end.

"So, this is the controller?" Zelda said. "Now the other three must be found."

"Do you know where they are?"

"Not their exact locations, but I know the lands they are in. Like me, there will be someone who was entrusted to know the secret of the keys. However, before you look for the next one, you should try to find Sonic. I know he travels a lot, but he often stays at Station Square. Link, Mario, you both need to complete this mission. This is not about the safety of Hyrule or the Mushroom Kingdom, it's about all of Nintendo. As you search for the keys, try to enlist the aid of as many people as you can. The more people that help the better our odds are.

"What about you?"

"Peach and I will stay here. If they come to attack again, someone will need to be here to protect Hyrule. So, are you ready?" Both Mario and Link firmly nodded their heads.

"How will we get there? Station Square is thousands of miles from." Mario asked.

"I'm going to use my power to teleport you. I believe I've recovered just enough power to do so." Zelda closed her eyes and raised her hands towards them. Link and Mario became surrounded by a blue energy, and then Vanished.

"Good luck, you two." Peach said, hoping she would see them again.


	4. Chapter 3: Sonic Retaliation

**Chapter 3**

**Sonic Retaliation**

In just a few seconds, Mario and Link were in Station Square. Everyone around them stopped what they were doing and looked at them.

"Man, of all the people we have to find, it has to be Sonic." Link said.

"What's wrong with Sonic?"

"Eh, that guy can be cocky. Sure, his heart is in the right place, but he treats everything as if it were a game."

"You've met him before?"

"No, but I've definitely heard of him. Heh, everyone finds out about heroes, such as ourselves."

"True. Well, perhaps we should ask around? I'll go down here and you can go there."

"Sounds like a plan. All right, meet up later?"

"Yeah." As Mario walked down the street, he came across a boy and his mother, and asked them.

"Hello, you wouldn't happen to know where Sonic is, do you?"

"Mario! It's Mario, mommy! He's my hero!"

"Oh, well, thank you." Mario said, beginning to blush.

"Sonic? No, I haven't seen him in weeks. I heard he went to another dimension. Sorry." The mother said.

"Well, thanks anyways."

"Bye." Mario came across a hotel, and decided to go in there. Inside, he saw the manager and asked him.

"Hello, would you happen to know where Sonic is?"

"Sonic? No, I heard he left. Say, what's a hero like you doing here anyways?"

"I'm here to save the world."

"Ha ha ha! Of course! What else would you say?"

"Yes, I guess you're right. Thanks."

"No problem!"

As Link was walking down the street, he noticed a sign advertising something.

"Have you ever wanted to fly a rocket belt? Ever dreamed of parachuting? Then sign up today and earn your Pilotwings!" The thought of trying something like that sounded interesting, but he had more important things to do. He then saw two teenage girls, and went to ask them about Sonic.

"Excuse me, do you know..."

"Oh my gosh, it's Link!"

"Link? Link!" Before Link knew it, he was surrounded by a group of screaming fans. It was obvious he wasn't going to get an answer out of any of them, so he decided to run for it. Link had figured that he might be popular, but he never had seen anything quite like this. Luckily, Link was much faster than any of the humans there, and escaped easily.

As Mario wandered the city, he found Link running.

"Something wrong?"

"It's nothing, just some crazy people. So, any luck?"

"No, they all say that Sonic left this dimension."

"Yeah, I got the same thing."

"Well, unless we can travel between dimensions, I don't think we can reach him." Just as Mario had said that, there was an explosion about nine blocks down.

"What was that?"

"I don't know, but we should check it out." When they got to the location of the explosion, they saw that it was at the bank. It looked like someone had blown open the safe, but they knew who it was when he walked out. Riding on a large, hovering battle tank was none other than the infamous Dr. Robotnick.

"I think you should put that money back." Link demanded.

"My, this is quite a surprise. Seeing you two here together makes we wonder what reason you could have for being here. No matter, I'll squash you anyways!" One of the canons on the tank pointed at them and fired. Link and Mario managed to jump out of the way, but the power that the laser cannon had worried them.

"Hah, for once I can aim at something that doesn't move so fast!" Link and Mario tried to come up to the tank to attack, but the Dr. kept firing at them, making it very difficult. They were able to avoid being hit directly, but he was making a mess out of the city. All of the sudden, the clear blue sky became dark for about twenty seconds, and then the sky was blue again. The laser cannon pointed at them again and fired, and they were able to dodge it, but the laser rammed into the building behind them, making it collapse.

"Mario, look out!" Link was out of the way, but the building was just about to hit Mario. Then, in the blink of an eye, Mario was out of the way, moved by a blue blur. Once it stopped, Link could see that it was the person they had been looking for.

"Attacking this city while I'm gone, Eggman? I should have known you tried something this cowardly." Sonic said with a smirk.

"What? What are you doing here? I thought I could actually accomplish something this time! Die, hedgehog!" Robotnick then pointed all the weapons he had at Sonic. Soon lasers were flying everywhere, and Link and Mario had no choice but to run for safety. Explosions were happening everywhere as he tried to hit Sonic, but Sonic avoided them with ease.

"I'm over here, Eggman, no, over here! Na na! You couldn't hit the board side of a barn!"

"Will you just shut up?" As the fun was starting to die down, Sonic went under the hovering tank and hit it. The tank went flying up, and when it landed, it landed upside-down while wrecking the guns. With his machine wrecked, Robotnick used his hover pod to escape.

"I'll get you next time!" Robotnick said, and flew off. Sonic looked around and saw Link and Mario, and went over to them.

"Sorry about that. He always tries to pull something now and then, so I need to keep track of him and keep him in line."

"Right." Link said with a frown.

"So, what are you two doing here anyways?"

"Looking for you. Since you've gone to other alternate dimensions, we thought you might know about something." Mario said.

"So what is it?"

"Well, I was in the Mushroom Kingdom when a portal opened, and a whole bunch large, round ships came flying out." The smirk on Sonic's face was gone. "Then, this really big, rectangular ship came out with these claw looking things behind it." Fear was then starting to show on Sonic's face. "And when the portal closed, all the ships left except for one of the round ships that stayed to blow the castle up with a single blast!" Sonic was now quite scared, and seeming to panic.

"Oh no! We, we gotta get out of here!"

"So you know them? Who are they? Why are they attacking us?"

"No, we all need to get out of here, or we're all dead!" Sonic looked like he was about to run, but Mario grabbed his hand and stopped him.

"Calm down. Now tell me, who are they? We need your help." Sonic started to calm down, and then told them what they wanted to hear.

"They're called the Zox, and they're the reason my friends and I left our dimension in the first place. Like you, they came out of nowhere. They wiped out the most powerful nations first, and then spread to the rest of the dimension and conquered it. The process was slow, but they had conquered our dimension without much trouble. I'm one of the few who made it out of there alive."

"Didn't you fight back?"

"Of course I did! They're just too powerful, and too many of them. Knuckles, Tails, even Eggman tried to help, but by the time we found out about them, there wasn't many others to help, and we didn't stand a chance. They don't bother declaring war or even speaking with anyone. The only reason I know about this is because we managed to get on board one of their ships. When it didn't look like we would make it, Tails came up with a device that could take us to an alternate dimension, and that's how we got here."

"But why are they doing this?"

"For power. They already rule the dimension they come from, but when they found out there were others, it wasn't enough. They go from one dimension to another, extending their power. They dream of being able to name everything theirs."

"Gosh, I'm sorry. I never knew" Mario said.

"It's all right, but you guys need to get out of here while you can."

"Are you serious? There's no way I'm just going to sit back and let this planet be destroyed!"

"Yeah? Well you don't have a chance, so you better just run. The only thing that keeps me alive is being able to keep running."

"So you're going to leave us while we fight? What kind of hero are you? Do what you want, but we're going to find the Nintendo 64, and use it to stop them."

"The what?"

"It's a ship that was built long ago. It's so powerful that you need to have four keys to unlock it, and their location are known only by four people, and they're guarded with powerful forces."

"That powerful, eh?" Sonic said, slightly curious.

"Come on, what do you say? The more that can help us, the better chances we have." Mario said.

"Well...."

"Just how long do you think you can run from them?" Link asked. Sonic was obviously thinking it over.

"Well, there weren't many who were able to help the last time I tried to fight them. Perhaps, it could work this time. You know, you're right, I can't just keep running. After a while, there won't be any place to run. All right, I'll do it." Sonic finally decided to go with it, though he didn't sound too terribly happy about it.

"Just let me go see Tails. He brought me here on the Tornado and he went to check on some Chao."

Sonic entered the Chao Garden, and found Tails petting one of the Chao.

"Oh, you're back! I was starting to worry; you were gone for a while."

"I was talking to Mario and Link."

"Really? Here?"

"Listen Tails, the Zox have come here."

"What? Oh no! We should...."

"No, I'm not going to run anymore. Link told me that there's a powerful ship here, one that might possibly rival that of the Zox's mother ship. I'm going to go with them." Tails had become deep in thought.

"Then I'll fight too!" Tails said with determination.

"Thanks, but I think you should stay here. They haven't attacked this city yet, so I think you should stay here to protect it. Oh, and tell the others about it."

"Will do!"

"Well, I'm off! Good luck, Tails."

"You too."

Sonic came back to Mario and Link, and told them that he was ready to go.

"So, where do we go then?" Sonic asked.

"Hold on, I'll see if I can ask Zelda." Link then tried to speak out to Zelda with his mind, hoping that she could contact him telepathically. "Zelda, can you here me?"

"Yes. Link, did you find Sonic?"

"Yes. Where do we go now?"

"The next key should be in Kanto"

"All right." Link then stopped focusing his mind. Zelda was able to communicate with Link easily, but it was much harder for Link to use such powers with his mind. "We need to go to Kanto."

"Kanto? Hey, that's not too far from here! I bet I could run across the water and get there in about ten minutes." Sonic said. As they went to the dock, they found a small boat. They went up to it, and a man was standing beside it.

"Hey, mind if we borrow this?" Sonic asked.

"What? Of course I do!"

"Sir, this is a matter of life or death." Link said.

"Yeah, right."

"No, seriously! We need the boat to get to Kanto and save the world!" Mario said.

"Hey, wait a minute, Link, Mario, and Sonic? You guys are always saving the world and stuff, aren't you?"

"And if you let us use the boat, you will be helping us. You'll be a hero!"

"Me, a hero? I don't know."

"Here, take this." Link said.

"What's this?"

"It's a rubee. In Hyrule, it's used as money, but I imagine its worth more here."

"Wow, thanks! All right then, sure, use the boat!"

"Thanks." As Mario and Link got in the boat, Sonic started to walk backwards.

"Hey, you two might want to hold on to something." Sonic said. Link and Mario looked at each other, and then sat in the two seats, holding on tightly. Sonic then backed up to get a running start, and then, running as fast as he could, ran towards the boat. He put his hands out in front of him and held the back of the boat, and with his great speed, pushed it along. Sonic was able to run so fast, that he ran right over the water.

As the man watched the three disappear from sight, he smiled.

"Ha, suckers, that boat wasn't even mine."


	5. Chapter 4: Hey You, Zox! Part 1

**Chapter 4**

**Hey You, Zox!**

Link and Mario were being sucked into their seats from the speed that they were moving at. Water splashed up from the sides of the boat, reaching several feet into the air as Sonic pushed them along. Link could move faster than most beings he knew, but he had never felt anything like this before.

As the shores of Kanto were within sight, a massive swarm of Pidgeys flew past them. There were thousands of them flying together, and there must be something going on for that to happen.

They were quite close to the beach now, but they weren't slowing down. Mario then remembered that Sonic doesn't like the water, and if he slowed down, he would drown, so he probably wouldn't stop till they reached land. As the boat hit the beach, the boat slammed onto the sand. Unfortunately, the boat slowed down faster than they did, and Mario and Link went flying out of the boat and landed in the sand.

"Whoops, sorry guys, guess I forgot about that part." Link sat up with a frown and spit sound out of his mouth while he said,

"Right." Link looked around for Mario, who had somehow got his whole upper body buried in the sand with his feet sticking out. Link grabbed Mario's feet and pulled him out.

"Woah, momamia. Eww, I got sand in my shorts."

"Well, we better not waste any time, but if someone here knows where the key is, who would it be?" Link said.

"I guess we should start in Pallet Town."

It was a little ways to town, but it wasn't too far. Sonic could have easily gone ahead, but he figured he should probably stick with them, though it pained him every moment to move so slow.

When they got into Pallet Town, there was quite a bit of commotion going on. Everyone was running in all sorts of directions in a panic.

"What's going on here?" Sonic asked.

"Not sure, but Prof. Oak's lab is not far from here, he might be able to tell us." The three heroes went inside the lab of the famous Prof. Oak and found him talking to someone over the videophone on his computer.

"I understand officer Jenny, but I'm doing the best I can."

"Very well, contact me the moment you have any information that can help."

"Professor Oak, I presume?"

"Link? Mario and Sonic? Oh great, first the ships and now this. What business do you have here? I've never seen you here before."

"Actually, we want to know what's going on. Why is everyone panicking? They run before we have the chance to ask them."

"They're running because we're under attack! Two round, flying ships came out of nowhere and started attacking us. Goldenrod and Vermillion city have already been totally annihilated, and now they're steadily attacking as they come towards this very spot. The police have asked me for assistance in trying to come up with a solution to fight them. Here, take a look." Oak pressed a button on the computer and videos of the ships were shown.

"Oh no, the CDs have already gotten here!" Sonic said.

"CDs?" Oak asked.

"Yeah, that's what those ships are called."

"You know about them?" Oak questioned.

"Long story."

"Well, either way, we haven't been able to stop them. The military and a few Pokemon trainers have tried to stop them, but nothing has worked. Right now I'm trying to observe their ships to find some sort of weak point." Link, Sonic, and Mario looked at each other, seeing that they were all thinking the same thing.

"Don't worry professor, we'll help you out." Link said.

"You will? Oh, thank you! If someone can help us out of this, its people like you."

"All right, which one is the furthest?" Sonic asked.

"That would be the one in Johto. It's currently in the town of Azalea."

"I'm there!" Just as Sonic said that, he rushed out the doors.

"Hey wait! Eh, forget it. Okay, then where is the other one?" Link asked.

"In Celadon City. We have a modified Pokeball transporter device that can transport people. I can have you two there in a flash. Good luck you guys."

Sonic hadn't traveled in this area before, but he was able to find his way with the signs that told him where Johto was, and then reading the signs that said where Azalea was. It wasn't long before he could see the CD slowly flying by shooting at everything. The town must have already been evacuated, because there was no one around.

As he saw the ship high above him, he then realized that he didn't have a means of getting up there. He looked around, but there wasn't any tall building or anything he could use to reach it.

Sonic ran around trying to think of what to do when he bumped into a boy with a red hat.

"Oops, sorry, guess I shouldn't have been running backwards."

"That's okay. Woah, what are you? Are you a Pokemon?" Sonic then noticed that there was a Charizard standing next to him.

"Me, a Pokemon? You haven't heard of me? Whatever; is that yours?"

"Charizard? Yeah."

"Do you think you could have him fly me up to that ship?"

"Yeah, but you can stop them from attacking?"

"Yes."

"All right then, hop on! Oh, by the way, my name is Ash." Ash said as he jumped on Charizard's back.

"I'm sonic." Sonic jumped on too, and the Pokemon began flapping its wings, making dust float around as it flew off.

Link and Mario were transported directly to Celadon City by the modified Pokeball transporter. They stepped out of the Pokecenter to find the city completely abandoned, and a CD firing lasers as it slowly moves along.

"Man, that thing is wrecking havoc to the city! How do we get up there?" As Mario questioned that, they saw three Pokemon trainers riding on flying Pokemon. One was on a Skarmory, another was on a Dragonair, and the other was on a Pidgeot. They were flying around the ship trying to avoid the lasers being fired at them.

"Hey, down here!" Link shouted as loud as he could, and they apparently heard him, because they came down towards them. Before they did however, one of the lasers came down directly at Mario and Link. They ran as fast as they could, but when the laser impacted with the ground, the explosion it made knocked them forward. Debris from the pavement flew everywhere, but they got away from it with only a few scratches.

As soon as the Pokemon trainers came down to them, they immediately offered them a ride, so Link got on the Dragonair while Mario got on the Pidgeot.

"You guys all right?"

"Yes, but wasn't the military trying to take care of that ship?"

"They did. They retreated when the ship destroyed half of their tanks. Now _we're_ trying to do what we can. Hey, you're Link, right? And you're Mario. I'm glad you guys are here to help us. Do you know how to take them down? Those things are pretty tough."

"You see the center of the ship? I think that's its weak point. When one of those ships had its main weapon turned against it, it was a one-hit K.O." Link said.

"All right, you heard him! Aim for the center! Dragonair, hyper beam!" The three began their attack. With the many lasers being fired at them, it was hard to get a clear shot. When one was open, Dragonair used its hyper beam attack and aimed right for the ring around the center. It hit dead on, and it created a large explosion, but it wasn't enough.

As another clear shot was open, Pidgeot too fired a hyper beam. As it was about to hit, the ship increased in speed, and the beam went right through the hole in the center. Just after Pidgeot attacked, it was caught off guard, and a laser hit them. Pidgeot took the hit, but the blast knocked Mario and the trainer off.

"Skarmory, get the girl!"

"Dragonair, get Mario!" The two dived down towards the falling people, and managed to grab them. As the girl trainer looked down, her heart sank as she saw Pidgeot falling towards the ground. It was hard to see from that distance, but it didn't look like it was even alive.

"Pidgeot, return!" She used her Pokeball to bring Pidgeot back before it hit the ground. "Please don't die on me, Pidge, please don't die." She held the Pokeball close to her chest as they flew on the back of Skarmory.

Sonic and Ash flew left and right, avoiding the lasers as they headed straight for the CD.

"Ash, can your Charizard make a hole in the side of that ship there?"

"We'll see. Charizard, fire blast!" Charizard inhaled deeply and let out a large blast of fire. When it hit the ship, the fire melted right through the metal, and then blew something up inside.

"Good, now fly right inside." Sonic said. As Charizard landed inside the huge ship, Ash put him back in the Pokeball. It looked like they were in some sort of cargo room, because there were many metal crates. The fire blast probably hit something explosive, because there were wires everywhere sticking out of the walls sparking with electricity.

"So now what?" Ash asked.

"Hold on." Sonic grabbed Ash's hand and started running through the ship. They ran down a hallway that went in a circle around the ship. Sonic had been on one of these before, and he knew just what to look for, but before they got there, they came face to face with a Zox.

The Zox guard was standing, about seven feet tall, with a laser rifle in his arm. It had tough, brown skin, and his muscles were huge. As Ash saw his face, he was scarred. It was a hideous head that looked like a Goblin's, with long, pointed ears, and a face that showed much anger and hatred. The guard immediately aimed his rifle at Sonic, but he ran away before he fired.

Sonic then found what he was looking for: the power generator room. The door was sealed shut, and it could only be opened by entering the right code on the keypad next to it.

"Do you have a Pokemon that can knock down that door?"

"Let me think. Oh right, come on out, Machamp!" Out of one of Ash's Pokeballs came a Machamp.

"Machamp, ice punch that door!" Machamp's four arms started to have a cold mist around them, and it then struck the door several times, making it covered in ice.

"Good, now break it down!" With the door having been brought down to a negative temperature, it was more vulnerable to being shattered. It didn't take too many hits before the door came crumbling down.

"Good job, now return!" Sonic and Ash went in, and inside was a huge power generator.

"This thing powers the whole ship. If we blow this up, it won't be able to fly anymore, and that will destroy it for sure."

"So, um, just how do we do that?"

"Not sure. I used to do this with explosives at hand." Sonic looked over the controls on the generator, thinking of what to do.

"You know, Tails always gets mad when I mess with his stuff, perhaps if I...." Sonic started pressing buttons at random, hoping he'd mess something up. As Ash saw what he was trying to do, he joined in also. After a few seconds, an alarm went off and a red light started flashing. A recorded message was then played on speakers throughout the ship, warning of the danger.

"What's that they're saying, Sonic?"

"I don't know; I never really got a good understanding of their language." Ash and Sonic turned around to leave, but they found three Zox guards standing by the door, pointing their weapons. They shouted something at them, and they didn't know what they were saying, though it was quite obvious they wanted them to surrender.

"Just give me a sec." Sonic dashed towards the guards and knocked them out with a few blows. It wasn't hard because they didn't shoot at him, because they were afraid of accidentally hitting the generator.

"Wow, you're good!"

"Now hold tight."

"What?" Sonic grabbed hold of Ash's hand and ran out. They were again running through the hallway, and they ran into more guards, but they weren't anything Sonic couldn't zip past. As they came to the cargo room where the hole was, Ash saw that Sonic wasn't slowing down.

"Hey, shouldn't I get Charizard out?"

"No time." Sonic then leapt out of the hole. As they fell towards the ground, the generator exploded, which created fissures in the ship, breaking it apart, and falling to the ground. While Ash was screaming, Sonic was smiling from excitement. They were falling towards a forest, so Sonic tried falling towards a tree. Sonic grabbed the tip of the tree and swung around, and was then swinging around branches as they fell to the ground. Sonic and Ash then landed safely from slowing down from swinging on the branches.

"Yahoo! Yeah, that's what I'm talking about! About time I show them who's boss!"

"Woah, that was intense." Ash was trying to settle down from the wild ride.

"Well, I better get back to Oak's place to see how the others did."

"Professor Oak? Hey, I know him! Mind if I come?"

"That is if you don't mind going super sonic again."

"I think I'm getting used to it."

Skarmory made an onslaught of swift, but the damage was still not enough. Before they knew it, they were already in Cerulean City, and the CD had begun charging its main weapon.

"We have to take it down now, before it fires!" Link shouted. Dragonair tried to get another clear shot to fire a hyper beam. When one was open, the blast hit in the center, and blasted off a chunk. The hum that it made when charging the laser sounded different when the chunk was blasted off, but it was still charging.

"Again!" Link shouted.

"He can't, Dragonair used up all his energy! He doesn't have anymore." Skarmory then used more swift at the ship, but it was just not a strong enough attack.

The CD had reached full energy, and was now ready to fire. As Mario saw the ship about to fire, it was deja vu. He saw his home, the Mushroom Kingdom, be destroyed by the same attack, and he could imagine what would happen to the city below.

Just as the CD fired, however, something went wrong. The ship exploded at the center, and it was so large it destroyed the whole ship. Because of the chunk they destroyed at the center, it messed up the laser beam, and caused it to overload.

They landed back on the ground and watched the burning rubble fall to the ground. It did cause damage to the city, but it was less than what would have happened if they failed.

Mario and Link saw the girl trainer holding her Pokeball, crying. Mario walked over to her, and tried to comfort her.

"He gave his life to protect you; you should be proud."

"I know." She said through her tears.

Mario and Link were about to head off, and thanked the trainers and their Pokemon for stopping the CD.

"Thank you for your help. You managed to save your homes and friends, and you should be glad."

"No, thank you. We wouldn't have known where to attack if it weren't for you. Good luck on your journey. I hope you find that key of yours."

"Thanks."


	6. Chapter 4: Hey You, Zox! Part 2

Back at the lab, they caught up with each other on what happened, with Oak giving much thanks to Link, Sonic, Mario and Ash. After they did, Mario asked the question.

"Professor, do you know where the key to Nintendo 64 is?" Oak was surprised that Mario had asked that question. He never thought he would hear someone ask that, but with the recent attack from Zox, it was understandable.

"So, you're looking for the controller? My, it's been years since I've even thought about the key."

"Professor, do you know what they're talking about?"

"Indeed I do, Ash. I am the one who was entrusted with the knowledge of the keys, but how did you know that, Mario?"

"I didn't, I just thought I'd ask."

"Well you asked the right person. As powerful as you guys say these Zox are, it's understandable you want it. The key is not far from. It resides in a cave near Indigo Plateau. You must be very careful though, as it's guarded by an extremely powerful Pokemon."

"Wow, really? What kind of Pokemon is it?" Ash asked, excited at the thought.

"One of a kind. There is no other like it, and it exists only for protecting the controller."

"You mean it's been living there all these years? How could that be?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know. I was told that the Pokemon was created by the creators of the Nintendo 64, but it's hard to imagine such a thing."

"Well, then it should be a good opponent." Ash said with a smile.

"What? Do you mean you're going with them?"

"Of course I am! I've already explored the regions of Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn. How can I pass up the opportunity to see a Pokemon that doesn't exist anywhere else!"

"Very well, I'm sure that they could use your help anyways."

"I don't want to put the kid danger." Link said, being cautious.

"I wouldn't worry about that. He's pretty good with his Pokemon. I think he can come in handy." Sonic said.

"Fine then."

"In fact, do you want to come with us on our journey? If we're going to be fighting the Zox, we're going to need all the help we can get." Mario asked.

"Really? That sounds great! That CD nearly destroyed my home, and I don't want that to happen to anyone else."

"Oh, Ash, I nearly forgot! I finished my experiments on your Pikachu. You can take him back now." As Oak said that, a door opened and Pikachu came running out, jumping into Ash's arms. Pikachu was glad to see Ash again.

"Hey buddy! So professor, did you learn anything?"

"Only that your Pikachu is indeed special. Its power levels are quite different from normal Pikachus, but I wasn't able to conclude anything. Either way, thank you for letting me see it."

"We should get going." Link said.

"Hold on, before you go, there's one more thing I want to give you." Oak went over to a desk and opened a drawer, and pulled out a special Pokeball. "Here Ash, take this."

"What is it?" Ash looked it over, and it seemed like a normal red Pokeball, except that it had a small block on the top and bottom.

"It's a special Pokeball I've developed, and it will be the only one you need. You see, it has a link to the transporter here at my lab, and any Pokemon that's here can be instantly transported to that Pokeball when you need it. It's voice activated, so you just say the Pokemon you want and that will be it. This way, you can travel with as many Pokemon you have, instead of just six, with just one Pokeball."

"But isn't that against the rules?"

"Ash, this is not about earning gym badges or having Pokemon battles, this is about saving our planet. Rules go out the door when it comes to saving lives."

"I understand. Thanks."

"You're welcome. Now get going."

Mario, Link, Sonic, and Ash with Pikachu on his shoulder, were walking through a forest when they found the entrance to the cave. A thick covering of plants hid it, but it was right where Oak told them it would be. It was dark inside, so Ash had Charizard lead the way.

"Hmm, it looks like a plain old cave to me, but surely it can't be that simple." Link said. They went further down, but all of the sudden a metal door from behind slid out from the ceiling and closed them off. Sonic was walking right behind them, and as it closed, it cut him off from the group.

"Hey, guys, you all right?" A faint muffled sound of Sonic could be heard from the other side.

"Yeah, we're fine."

"Hold on, I'm going to try and bust through." Sonic said. The others stood there wondering what Sonic was going to do, but then they heard a loud bang against the door.

"Ouch! Oh, my head!"

"Sonic? Did you just do what I think you did?"

"Yes, and it didn't even make a dent. I'm sorry, but I guess I'll have to sit this one out. Good luck."

"All right, we'll see if we can find another way out." As they continued further on, they came to where the walls of the cave were metal walls, with lights on the ceiling, much like the place in Hyrule. With light to see where they were going, Ash put Charizard back in the Pokeball.

"This is looking familiar. This must definitely be the place then." Link said.

When they finally came to the end, they found what appeared to be a statue of a Pokemon. It had the legs of a Blaziken and the wings of a Charizard, but the rest seemed almost human, and three times the size. It's chest was covered by some sort of metallic armor, and all over its body were robotic implants, making it look half Pokemon and half machine.

As they looked at the curious statue, its robotic eye glowed red. As soon as they saw that, they all backed off, and watched, as the stone-looking body became flesh.

"Amazing! So that's how it has been living for so many years! It turns to stone when sleeping!" Ash exclaimed. The Pokemon then faced them, posed to fight.

"If that's the guardian, then we'll find the key if we defeat him." Link explained. The Pokemon then charged after them. It was coming towards Mario as it jumped and did a flying kick, and Mario quickly jumped out of the way.

"Hey, if it's part machine, then a surge of electricity should fry it! Pikachu, go!" Pikachu hopped off of Ash's shoulders and delivered a bolt of electricity. As it hit the Pokemon, however, he seemed to absorb it. "Or, maybe not." With the electricity it absorbed, it channeled it to its left hand, and formed a glowing sword from the electricity.

"Ash, don't do that again." Link said.

"Well, I thought it would have worked." The Pokemon then brandished its sword by slicing at the wall, making a deep gash in it with ease.

Since he was the sword expert, Link faced the Pokemon. The Pokemon swung its sword down, and Link rolled to the side. Link then tried to swing out at its leg, but the Pokemon blocked with its sword. As Link's sword came in contact with the electric sword, electricity was channeled through Link, and gave him quite a shock.

"Link, are you all right?" Mario asked.

"Eh, I'll live." Ash then got an idea.

"All right, electricity then? Golem, I choose you!" Golem came out of the Pokeball, and the Pokemon was about to attack it.

"Good. Golem, grab the sword!" As it swung the sword at Golem, Golem reached out with its small arms and grabbed the sword, and as it did, the sword turned back into unformed electricity and traveled into the ground.

"All right!" With no sword, the Pokemon then cocked its head back, and let out a blazing fire blast. Rock and ground were resistant to fire, but the heat was so intense, Golem was starting to become lava.

"Good job! Golem, return!"

"Do you have to keep saying that?" Mario asked.

"Huh? Oh, well, um, I guess I don't, have to...I don't know."

"Mario, let's go all out at once on this guy." Link said.

"All right." Mario and Link charged at the Pokemon. With its height, it was hard to attack anything but its legs, so Link went for its right leg. Since Mario could jump high, he jumped up for its chest. Mario was going to swing his fist right at it, but the Pokemon swatted Mario like a large insect, and sent him flying into the wall.

The distraction, however, gave Link a chance to attack its legs. Link aimed for the part with flesh, and shoved his sword right into it. The sword went so deep that the hilt was the only thing sticking out.

The Pokemon screamed in pain, and then screamed again as Link pulled it back out. The Pokemon then kicked Link with its other foot, and sent him to the wall with Mario.

"Steel, electric, flying, fire, and fighting. It's amazing it has so many types, but I think I know just the Pokemon to tackle it. Blastoise, come out! All right, hydro pump!" Two panels on the blue Pokemon's shell opened up, revealing a pair of water cannons. A powerful stream of water came out of them and hit the guardian.

It was apparent that the water was hurting him, but it wasn't that much. The force of the water spray was nonetheless pushing him back, though.

"Eh, Mario, can you, ow, get up?" Link said.

"I think so."

"Come on, Ash found the Pokemon's weakness, this is our chance to get him."

"All right, let's go." The force of the water made it difficult for the Pokemon to walk forward and attack the Blastoise, and while he tried, Link and Mario came back for another attack. Mario and Link delivered several blows, and the water made it difficult to retaliate.

"He has robotic implants all over him, and now he's drenched in water. Blastoise, that's enough. Pikachu, one more time!" The last time Pikachu shocked him, it was used against them, but Ash figured the water would make a difference. As Pikachu delivered a bolt of electricity, the Pokemon's body was gripped in pain. When the shock was over, it fell to its knees.

"Blastoise, finish it off!" As Blastoise started spraying again, the Pokemon got back up and fired a fire blast. The flame went right through the water, evaporating it as it went, and struck Blastoise.

"Oh no! Blastoise, are you all right?" Blastoise was covered in second-degree burns, so he put him back in the Pokeball. The Pokemon then turned to Link and Mario again.

"Oh no, not again." Mario said. The Pokemon raised his hands and was about to smash them, but he then bowed his body forward from the chest, and fell to the ground, flat on his face. As it laid on the ground, they saw Sonic standing behind it.

"Heh, seems this cave has another entrance." Sonic said with a grin. Everyone had a sigh of relief as they saw that the Pokemon was not getting back up.

"Well, now what do we do? We still don't have the key." As Mario said that, the Pokemon got back up. They all stood ready to fight, but then the Pokemon spoke.

"You have proven yourselves worthy of the controller."

"What? You can talk?"

"Yes. I have been sent here by my creators to guard the controller, only to allow those who defeat me in battle to obtain it. You're hearts are of good intent, and so I entrust the safety of it to you." Once he finished speaking, he returned to stone. Once he did, a platform from the ground rose up, and revealed the key.

"One amazing thing after another. Man, what will the next place be like?" Mario then took the controller and put it in his pocket.

As they all stood outside, they received more instructions from Zelda. As Link opened his eyes, he said,

"D.K. Isle, that's where we'll find the next key."

"What? We have to go there? Man, and I bet it's Donkey Kong who knows where the key is!" Mario said angrily.

"What's his problem?" Ash asked.

"Mario and Donkey Kong don't exactly get along together very well." Link said.

"Well, I guess we have to, but just how do we get there? It's just beyond the Mushroom Kingdom, but even that is quite far away."

"Well, we could do the boat thing again, but I wouldn't be able to run the whole way. I could probably run for about an hour, and then jump in the boat."

"You mean push a boat? Hey, I could get Lapras do get us the rest of the way!"

"That might do it. All right, but we should probably rest first." Mario said.

"Good idea. We've been through a lot, and we'll only wear ourselves out if we keep going now."

The group of heroes went to a Pokecenter to spend the night. Afterwards, they got some food and water for their long journey, and got in the boat.

"All right, we're already half way!" Mario said.

"Nintendo 64, here we come!" Ash said.

"Everyone strapped in?" Sonic asked. "Good, let's go!" With blazing speed, they disappeared into the rising sun, trailing across the ocean.


	7. Chapter 5: Donkey Kong Distrust Part 1

**Chapter 5**

**Donkey Kong Distrust**

Sonic was sleeping in the back of the boat. He had run 312 miles, and deserved a well rest. Lapras was now pushing the boat, and Link, Mario, and Ash sat in the boat bored.

"Man, we've been out here for hours. When are we gonna get there?" Ash asked.

"I told you already, I don't know. It could be an hour from now or a day from now...oh, wait, just a few minutes." Link's excellent vision had caught sight of an D.K. Island as he was speaking, and after ten minutes, everyone could clearly see the island.

"Hey, Mario, why does the island happen to look just like D.K.'s face?" Link asked.

"I don't know. I've wondered that too, but I never thought about it too much."

"Hey Sonic, wake up!" Ash said.

"Huh? Oh, we're here? Yawn! Ah, that was a nice nap."

As they stepped off the boat and onto the island, they could hear music coming from the center.

"Hey, what's that?" Ash asked.

"The Kongs. They must be playing music." Mario said.

"It's kinda catchy."

"Whatever." Mario said. They walked into the cave that led to the center of the island, and there they saw a tree house. Inside, they could see the Kongs dancing and playing instruments. As they got closer, they stopped playing as they caught notice of Mario and the others. That's when D.K., Diddy, Cranky and Lanky came out of the tree house.

"Hey, Mario, what are you doing here? Did I ever say you're welcome here? And just what are you people doing here?"

"Look, it's not like I wanted to come here." Mario said.

"Then get out of here! I might not be the damsel-napping guy I was before, and you not my enemy, but that doesn't mean I need to be buddy-buddy with you!"

"We're here for the controller." Link said, trying to stop the pointless arguing. D.K. immediately stopped and looked seriously into Link's eyes.

"What do you want with that?" D.K. asked slowly.

"Nintendo has been invaded by a race called the Zox from an alternate dimension. They've already been attacking several of our nations, and they've conquered dimensions. They're too powerful for us to fight on our own, so we need the power of the Nintendo 64."

"You don't say? Ha, ha ha, hahahaha! Man, that has got to be the funniest thing I've heard all day! Being invaded from another dimension, yeah right."

"We're serious! Your island could be next! If you don't tell us where the key is, this planet is doomed!"

"Hey, D.K., I think Link is telling the truth." Diddy said.

"What? You're believing this stuff? Come on!" Cranky then hit D.K. over the head with his cane.

"You dope! This is Mario and Link we're talking about! When's the last time you heard them lie! What kind of idiot are you?"

"These guys are related?" Ash asked in a whisper.

"Yeah, some family." Sonic whispered back.

"Fine! Even if it is true, I still ain't telling ya where the key is! This ain't my business, so why don't you go on your way?"

"And you call yourself a hero? People are in danger! Besides, it will become your business when they attack your island." Link said.

"You wanna know what, green boy? I'm all for kicking bad guy, but I'm not going to do something just because Mario here wants me to." Cranky then smacks D.K. over the head again with his cane.

"What's your problem? Every time there's a kart race or melee tournament, you're always itching to beat him! When is this stupid rivalry of yours gonna end?" Just as he said that, a laser beam hit the ground near them, knocking them all back from the explosion. As they looked to see where it came from, they saw a CD hovering straight above them.

"Man, how come they always have to show up wherever we go?" Mario said.

"You mean that's one of them Zox?" The ship stopped firing lasers and began charging the main laser beam.

"Yes, and if we don't hurry, we're all dead! Ash, get out a flying Pokemon and let's go." Mario said.

"Wait, you mean you'd risk your life trying to save my home?"

"Of course. Just because we don't get along doesn't mean I shouldn't help out. How else did we become heroes?" Donkey Kong knew that Mario was right, but he hadn't thought of Mario actually risking his life for him.

"Charizard, I choose you!" Nothing came out of the Pokeball. "Huh? Charizard, come on out!" Still nothing came out.

"Is it broken?"

"I don't think so. The Pokemon are transferred to my Pokeball when the Pokemon is in its Pokeball at the lab. It could be that Oak has Charizard out to feed or something."

"What a fine time to do that. Do you have another flying Pokemon?" Mario asked.

"Not one that's big enough to carry someone."

"There might be another way." D.K. said.

"What is that?"

"There's a cannon barrel that could blast you all the way up there, but you'll be smashed flat hitting that thing."

"I'll go. Nayru's love can protect me. I can put a bomb in the generator room."

"But you'll never make it out in time! Take me, I can get you in and out in not time." Sonic said.

"Well, you are small, so I think you can fit within the protection nayru's love can."

"Small? Hey!"

Time was already running out, so they rushed to the barrel and slipped inside.

"Hold on tight, Sonic!" Link then cast the spell to place a blue shield around them. Link then gave the word, and D.K. blasted them off with a loud boom. Like a speeding blue cannon ball, they rushed towards the CD. Once they hit it, they crashed through the metal hull of the ship, and landed in the hallway.

There was less than a minute till the laser beam would fire, and no time could be wasted. Sonic ran while holding Link and took him to the generator room. Luckily, the generator room was unlocked this time; a person inspecting it must have forgot to lock it. Link took out a bomb and lit it, and Sonic then grabbed Link and took him out. They went back to the hole they came in from and jumped down.

Just as they went down, the ship exploded. Link used nayru's love again to protect them from the debris from the ship, as well as their fall into the ocean.

"Watch out, we're gonna land in the ocean!" Sonic said.

"That's my intent." They hit the water with a large splash, and Link's magic protected them from the impact. After they fell in the ocean, so did the ship, creating a tsunami-size splash.

Everyone ran to the shore to find Link and Sonic, but a few minutes had passed before anyone saw them.


	8. Chapter 5: Donkey Kong Distrust Part 2

"Where are they? I don't see them! Did they drown?" Ash said. They then saw Link come out from the water while carrying Sonic. He walked up the beach then sat on the ground. Sonic was coughing and taking deep breaths, trying to catch his breath.

"Whew, that was close." Link said.

"Ack, man, don't make me do that again." Sonic said.

"Are you guys all right? What happened?"

"I used nayru's love when we hit the ocean, and we went all the way to the bottom from the high dive. The shield protected us from the water for a little bit, but then my magic ran out, and well, you get the picture."

"Well, at least you two are safe." Returning to his normal stature, Link inquired of the key.

"Now, D.K., about that controller." A few seconds passed before he said anything.

"Well, I guess I see now why you want it. All right then, I'll tell you where it is. Besides, I've never actually seen the key for myself, so I'm curious what's down there."

"Down there?"

"The place is under this island. You need to go underwater, and there you can find a cave."

"You mean I got to go underwater again? No way, cut me out!" Sonic said.

"Come on, I'll help you get there!" Mario said, but it was too late, because where Sonic stood was a cloud of dust.

"Seesh, he's afraid of water so he scrams." Link said.

"Come on, let's go." D.K. said, and dived into the ocean. They went to a part of the island where they could see an underwater cave. There was air above them so they swam up, and they walked onto land inside the cave. It was pitch black since no sunlight could enter, so Mario reached into his pocket for another fire flower and held a fireball in his hand to light the way. Sure enough, the rock walls of the cave were metal walls as they proceeded through.

"You know, we've had to face a monster in the last two places, so there's a chance we might run into one again." Mario cautioned. As they walked, they then came to a dead end. In their way was a solid stone wall.

"What? There isn't any other way, is there?"

"No." D.K. said.

"Hey wait, look at this. This square line on the wall is indented." Link said. He then tried pushing at the spot on the wall, and after much effort, pushed it only an inch.

"Stand aside, let me take care of this." D.K. said with a smile, and began swinging his arm in a circle, and after gaining enough momentum, he punched the block. Donkey Kong's strength was quite amazing, and with it, he managed to punch the block right out of the wall, and they were able to enter the other side.

"Hey, all right!" Ash said.

"We better hurry." Link said. As the group continued down the large, metal passage, all of the sudden the ground began to rumble, and blocks of metal from the ceiling began falling on them.

"Watch out!" Everyone was running as fast as they could, moving left and right to avoid the falling objects. Ash wasn't as fast as the rest, and as he ran, a block fell right in front of him, nearly crushing his feet.

"Woah! Wait, Ponyta, come out!" Ash quickly got on the back of Ponyta and used that speed to get out of danger. Ash would have tried to help the others as well, but the Ponyta he was riding was too small to carry anyone else also.

D.K. was using both his legs and feet as he ran. He was paying attention to what was in front of him, and hadn't notice a block falling right above him. Just as he was about to be crushed, Mario jumped and pushed D.K. aside, with the block almost falling on himself.

"You saved me?"

"Of course, now let's go!" After running for a couple of minutes, the ground stopped rumbling, and the blocks stopped falling. With the danger over, everyone stopped to catch their breath.

"Man, you never know what to expect in these places." Link said.

"Only that something is going to try to stop us, huh?" Ash said. The group picked up their walk again, and they reached the end without more traps. When they got to the end, there were lights at on the ceiling, so Mario no longer needed to hold the fireball for light.

"Hey, there's the key!" Ash said. Putting Ponyta back in the Pokeball, he ran towards the key, but once he was within a few feet, the pedestal that held the key retracted into the ground. Then, on the wall in front of him, parts of the wall began to slide out. When it was fully out, it was obviously another guardian.

The guardian was as tall as the last one, and this one was made entirely of metal and machinery, looking just like the walls. Its body was rather block shaped, without much detail in its body. The robot raised its arm towards Ash, and its hand transformed into a gun, shooting lasers at Ash.

Seeing the lasers, Ash began running for his life, with the lasers right behind him. Mario ran out to grab Ash and bring him back over to the others. As the robot walked towards them, it changed its gun back into a hand, and raised it to attack. It swung its large fist right down on the group, and they all scattered to avoid it.

The opponent was entirely made of metal, and Link didn't have much to attack something so hard, but he had to try anyways. He took a bomb and some string, then tied it around an arrow, and aimed for its head. The arrow hit it dead on, and made a large hole in its head, but it didn't seem to slow it down at all. The robot then did a sweeping kick, knocking Link unconscious.

"That's it, let me take care of this." D.K. said. He ran towards the robot's leg and swung his mighty arm at it. He made a big dent, and the hit made the robot unbalanced, making it fall to the floor. D.K. then jumped on the back of it and clasped his hands together, bringing them down as he hit it. The hit was so powerful it made small shockwaves.

The guardian still wasn't down and out, and got back up while Donkey Kong was on its back. D.K. let go, and the robot then kicked D.K. right when he landed. Donkey Kong was now also unconscious.

"Mario, what are we going to do?" Ash said, now scarred.

"Don't worry, we'll beat this thing."

"Oh wait, I know! He's metal, so maybe fire can melt him! Typhlosion, come out! All right, Typhlosion, fire blast!" The scorching blast of fire shot out towards the guardian's chest. When it collided with its chest, there was a small explosion, and the heat burned a whole in its armor, making his machinery visible.

"Good, now hit it again at the same spot!" Typhlosion fired again, but this time the robot shot a laser at it, making the fire fizzle out, and another laser hit the Pokemon. The laser hit it head on, and Typhlosion was knocked to the ground.

"Typhlosion, are you okay?" There was a large wound on him, and he was bleeding quite a bit. Ash quickly retrieved him, hoping Oak could heal him.

"You'll be okay, don't worry." The robot walked towards them, ready to attack.

Mario didn't have the physical or magical abilities to take it down, but there was the hole in its armor. It looked quite dangerous, but everyone's lives were in danger now. Mario ran towards the robot, dodging the lasers that it was shooting at him. He then jumped up to its chest where the hole was, and crawled inside.

The guardian couldn't hit Mario with him inside, so it then began smashing itself to try and hit him, but it didn't appear to accomplish anything.

Mario pulled and ripped wires as he squirmed through, hoping that something would shut it down. He threw fireballs wherever he could, then when one of his fireballs hit a mechanical box, it exploded.

The robot stopped what it was, and froze like a statue, then fell down with a large thud. Mario, however, was still inside when it exploded.

Mario had a strange dream. Distorted memories flashed through his head, and nothing made sense, but that's how some dreams go.

Link, Ash, Sonic, and the Kongs stood around Mario, hoping he would wake up. His clothes were burned and torn from the explosion, and he laid on the shore.

"Pika? Pkiachuuu." Pikachu was pushing Mario, trying to make him wake up. Mario's eyes started to move, and the rest of his body was then moving.

"Eh, where am I? Man, what a strange dream." Suddenly remembering what happened, Mario immediately sat up.

"Hey, what happened? Did we beat the guardian? Did we get the key?"

"Calm down Mario, everything worked out. We have the key, and you saved us from that robot. You made something exploded inside it and made it stop working while you were still in there. Ash had to come in and drag you out. You've been out of it for three hours. You're lucky I had a spare fairy in my jar. Man, what were you thinking of pulling a crazy stunt like that?" Link said.

"Heh, your lives, that's what I was thinking about."

"Well, everything's all right now. Now we just need to get the other key. Zelda told me where it is, but you're not going to like it."

"And what place will I not like?"

"Sand Wilderness."

"Isn't that near where Neo Arcadia is? That place is sure to have tons of reploids!"

"I told you so. We should rest up first though." Mario then tried to stand up, but his body ached all over.

"Ow. Yeah, good idea." Mario said.

D.K. looked at Mario, and realized that even though he had done some rotten things to him, he was still willing risk his life to help him. Perhaps Mario has actually forgiven him. Having seen first hand at what kind of enemy they're facing, D.K. saw what he had to do.

"You know what? I'll join you on this quest of yours. You guys could probably use my help!" Mario was surprised from Donkey Kong's statement. He always saw D.K. as not wanting to do anything with him, yet he just volunteered to help them fight. He had helped D.K. out, and even saved him from the falling block earlier, but that was out of instinct. He always seemed angry with him, but perhaps he was ready to change his mind. After all, Mario knew that you should forgive and forget.

"Really? You'll, help us?"

"Yeah! I've been bored around here lately anyways."

"Well, all right then, welcome to the team." Mario said.

"Oh wait! Before I go, I better grab something." D.K. ran back over to the tree house. When he came back, he held a large, log-looking coconut gun. He held it across his chest and smiled.

"Now, I'm ready."

After a good night's rest, they were ready to proceed with the journey.

"So how are going to get there? I mean, I don't even know where this Sand Wilderness is!" Ash said.

"It's a lot, lot farther than it was from Kanto to here." Link said.

"Hey, we can use my super barrel cannon!" D.K. said.

"Your what?"

"It's a much larger and more powerful version of the barrel that blasted Link and Sonic to the CD. I think it can get us there, or at least part of the way." When they agreed to the idea, they followed D.K., and came to barrel that was a hundred times bigger than any other one. When they all got inside, Cranky came to launch them off.

"When you blast off, you'll hear a ringing in your ear. Don't worry, that will go away after an hour or so, heh heh! Hasta la pasta! He he!" With an earth-shattering boom, they were gone from sight within seconds as they sped towards their last destination.


	9. Chapter 6: Mega Man Oblivian Part 1

**Chapter 6**

**Mega Man Oblivion**

It was now dark as they flew through the sky, and many stars were visible. They all had a bored expression on their faces, considering they have been flying through the sky for longer than any of them could tell. Pikachu didn't boredem though, as it was trying to hold on tight to Ash's shirt.

Finally, they could see the Sand Wilderness below them. The desert was once a fertile land that people lived on, but ongoing war had turned it into a wasteland.

They were getting closer to the ground. Though the ground was sand, it would still be a rough landing, so to smooth it out, Ash thought quickly.

"Golduck!" With the Pokeball, Golduck appeared on the ground ahead safely, and used its psychic powers to grab hold of them and gently set them down.

"Thanks, good thinking Ash." Link said as his feet were safely on the ground. "I should probably apologize to you, Ash. I thought that you would just get in the way if you came with us, but you've been quite helpful."

"No problem." Ash said with a smile. "Wow, it feels pretty cool here considering we're in a desert."

"That's because it cools down at night. We're lucky we came at this time, instead of high noon." As they looked at their surroundings, they saw a large, yellow bird run across the desert in the distance.

"What is that thing?"

"I think it's called a Chocobo, but what would it be doing here?"

"It could be that its homeland has been attacked by the Zox, and now it's just running away." Link began to wonder just how many places have been attacked. If the Zox appeared just about every place they went, then there must be even places they haven't been to that have been attacked, and even destroyed. "We should hurry before another land is attacked."

"Well, what do we do here then? I mean, it's my guess that Zero knows where the key is, but there's no one around here." Mario asked.

"Don't bother." Link said with his eyes closed. It was apparent that Zelda was communicating with him, and he was struggling to hear. It was probably very difficult for her to reach him from so far away.

"Zero, doesn't know where the key is. He...lost that memory from his...hibernation. The key is...right in front of us? Uh, that's all I got."

"What? There's nothing in front of us but sand!" D.K. said.

"Wait, how does she know where the key is?" Sonic asked. Link didn't hear Zelda mention anything about it, but there was more important business.

"I don't know, but now's not the time to think about that."

"Right in front of us? Perhaps she means under the sand? This didn't used to be desert, perhaps it got buried over time." Mario said.

"That's a good point, but how do we dig up so much sand?" Link asked. Sonic then spoke up with confidence.

"Leave that to me!" Sonic then walked forward, but a snake-type reploid popped out of the sand right in front of him. It shot a laser from its mouth, but Sonic dodged it and smashed it pieces.

"Looks like there's some old reploids laying around here that attack anything that comes near it." Sonic said cautiously. Just then, several human-shaped reploids and a few snake-types rose out of the sand. They had a few rust patches and eroded armor, but they were still a threat.

"Ah, there's a ton of them!" Ash said.

"Ha, I'm an expert robot smasher! Eggman's robots aren't too tough, how much trouble could they be?" Sonic jumped and rolled into a ball, then smashed the reploid.

"Well, they're not too sturdy." Ten more were then coming towards him. Sonic then rolled into a ball on the ground and spun around to gain speed, making sand fly everywhere. He then rolled off and took down the reploids around him.

Ash held out his Pokeball and shouted out the name of the Pokemon he wanted.

"Aggron, I choose you!" Aggron looked around at its surroundings and saw that this was no Pokemon battle, and Ash was in danger. Aggron then lifted Ash and set him on its shoulders to keep him safe, while Pikachu held on to Ash's head.

"Aggron, what are you doing? Oh, I get it! All right, let's go." Pokemon trainers and Pokemon their selves had become co-dependent over generations of taming. The trainer and the Pokemon were two halves. The Pokemon grew strong in speed and strength, while the trainer grew in intelligence. This way, the Pokemon became remarkably strong to carry out tasks, while the trainer became the brains of the Pokemon, instructing it what to do.

Three reploids came up to them and fired several lasers at them. With Aggron's tough, steel body, the lasers hardly made it flinch. Aggron then charged towards the machines and smashed them to the ground with its powerful fists.

"Aggron, behind you!" Ash shouted. A reploid had come up from behind, but just before it fired, Aggron swung its powerful tail at it, breaking the enemy in two. Another one came from the side, but with Ash's instructions, Pikachu zapped it, frying its circuits.

D.K. became surrounded, so he slammed the ground with his fists, making the ground shake. This made them unbalanced, so he plummeted the machines before they had a chance to get back up. A snake-type then sprung from the ground and wrapped around D.K. With him trapped, the reploid bit down on his shoulder, making him scream in pain. Resisting the pain, D.K. broke from the snake's grip, ripping it apart.

As D.K. held his shoulder, he saw even more enemies coming for him, and readied his coconut gun.

The metal on the reploids were too strong for Link's sword to cut through easily, so he attacked at parts that were rusted and damaged. No matter how many he destroyed, more kept coming, but Link never gave up before, and wasn't going to now.

A reploid ahead of him fired three lasers, and Link quickly raised his shield. Luckily, his hylian shield was enough to block the lasers. Link then fired his hookshot at it, and then brought the enemy to him. Link stuck his sword out, and as soon as the reploid came to him, his sword pierced right through the machine's head. He noticed another one coming from the right, so he used the reploid he held as a shield to protect him from the blasts. When the reploid stopped firing for a moment, Link swung the lifeless body he had around and threw it at the reploid. They both exploded when they collided.

Five more then came up from behind him, and he shot off five ice arrows, encasing them in ice, which Link then easily shattered. Before he knew it, twenty had surrounded him, all pointing their weapons at him.

When Mario tore apart one of the snakes, he then saw he had become surrounded also.

"There's too many of them! How are we supposed to do this? They just keep coming!" The enemy had surrounded them all, with laser guns pointed right at them. They were easy to take down by their selves, but there's safety in numbers.

Just as death seemed eminent, all the reploids froze in their place, and then looked to the east. After a few seconds, each and every one then ran towards the direction that they looked. Everyone stood there flabbergasted.

"Uh...what just happened? Why did they all leave?" Mario wondered. Link used his far-seeing vision to see where they went, but he couldn't see anything.

"I don't know. The only thing I can guess is that there was something more important than killing us. Normally, I would be worried, but the last key is within our reach, and it won't matter if we have the Nintendo 64. Sonic, you said you can dig up this place, right?" Link said.

"Yeah, no problem. Hey, you might want to back up." As the heroes backed up, Sonic began running in a large circle. Everyone began to question what he was doing, but then Sonic kept getting faster, and they could feel a breeze. As Sonic was becoming a blur, a small whirlwind was made from his running. As he went faster, the whirlwind got bigger. Sand was flying in all directions, and soon it was so big that they were covering their faces to block the sand. With their faces covered, they didn't see what was going on, just that they felt like thousands of tiny rocks were hitting them, and they heard nothing but the wind and sand.

As they stopped feeling the sand hit them, they opened their eyes, and saw a large hole with a small building in it. As they looked at it, it didn't appear to be the place. It was just a small, dilapidated, tin shack.

They walked down the hole, sliding down the sand, and opened the door to it, and inside they saw the familiar metal hallway that led downward.

"I guess this _is_ it. Perhaps it's built this way to deceive. Good work Sonic." Mario said.

"No problem!" The group walked inside, but just as they took a step into the hallway, the ground began to shake immensely.

"What's going on?"

"This whole place is going to come down if we don't hurry!"

"Hey, let me take care of this! I'm the fastest here, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"All right then, good luck."

"Hey, if I'm not back in twenty seconds, then get outta here." Sonic then dashed down the hallway.

The square edges of the hallway became a round pathway as he went down. To make things harder for running, other than the shaking, parts of the walls jutted out, making the path harder. Sonic had to slow down a bit so that he wouldn't run right into one, because at that speed, running into a wall could be fatal. They came more and more, but thanks to the round hallway, he was able to run on the walls.

As he ran left and right avoiding the blocks, the passage up ahead began to close off. A circle wall came up in front of him, and left a small hole in the middle. The hole was just big enough for sonic to fir through, so he dived for it head first. When he landed back on the ground on the other side, he came to a room, and saw the key on its pedestal. As he came towards it, the pedestal began to lower into the floor. Sonic kicked up the pace, and grabbed the key before it had gone down into the floor.

The place was still shaking hard, and now he needed to get out of there before he was buried alive. Sonic went back the way he came, and though the blocks that jutted out were still there, no more came out.

Sonic stepped out of the building not a second too late, and the shack collapsed right behind him.

"Yeah! What a rush! Hey guys, I got the last key! Guys?" The group had their backs turned towards Sonic, and they were all looking to the sky.

"Hey, what's up?" As Sonic looked to where they were looking, he saw why they were stunned: A CD was floating right above them.


	10. Chapter 6: Mega Man Oblivian Part 2

"So that's why the reploids didn't finish us off! They sensed that the CD was coming." Link said.

"Hey, you got the key! All right, let's get the Nintendo 64 now! So, just how do we dot that?" D.K. asked.

"Um, good question."

"You mean you don't know? Now what are we going to do?"

"Well, we should..." Link stopped and closed his eyes; he was apparently receiving instructions from Zelda.

Mario, Link, Ash and Sonic stood in a square, quite far apart. They all held a key by the center handle, pointing the tips at each other at the center. They weren't sure how long this would take, and the CD was past half way from firing its charged laser.

Under the handle was a button, and when they pressed it, it emitted a light from the tip. Once the light touched each other at the center of their formation, there was a bright flash of light, and the CD was getting closer to fire.

Something fuzzy began to appear, and then become more refined. Right before their eyes, the Nintendo 64 was appearing. It was fuzzy at first, and then transparent. It continued to become clearer, and then, a solid ship stood right before them. It seemed as if the ship was phasing into their dimension.

The black ship was massively huge. The main part was square-shaped with round circles at the corners, and a thin, gray, arc-shaped part that stuck out in the center. At the front, four rods stuck out, and at the end of them were larger versions of the keys. After their quest to gather the keys, they were finally able to see the ultimate power that they needed to win this war.

Everyone gathered to the side of it, trying to see how to get in.

"Hurry, the CD is about to fire!"

"Come on, there's gotta be some way to get in here!" As Mario walked around it, part of the ship's side opened up and lowered a platform for them to walk up.

Everyone ran to get inside, but when they looked at the CD, it looked like it was too late. The ship stopped charging up its main weapon, and was now going to fire right at them.

"Oh no! There's no where to run!" Just then, they saw a green laser blade strike through the ship from the inside at different places, and the CD then exploded as it tried to fire.

As they looked at the blazing fire in the sky, they saw a red figure fall down towards them. When he landed, they saw that it was Zero who saved them, who then shouted at them.

"What are you waiting for? Go on, get out of here! There's more on the way!" Without hesitating, they all ran up the ramp, Zero included.

They ran down the halls of the ship, not really sure where they were going. The lights turned on as they ran, and once they came to a door, it automatically slid open; the ship seemed to be coming to life.

As they stepped in, the lights turned on, and they saw that it was a large room, with many controls. There were seats next to computer consoles, and a large screen at the front of the room.

Mario ran up the to the console at the front and took a seat. Once he did, the screen in front of them turned on, and they could see that two more CDs were coming towards them, and one more ship was with them. As Mario took a look at the other ship, it looked familiar. Mario then remembered that that was the same ship that came out of the portal last, back at the Mushroom Kingdom when the Zox first invaded.

"Oh no, that's the Zox mother ship!" Sonic shouted.

"Mother ship?"

"Yes. It's the lead ship where the commanding officer is. It's more powerful than the CDs, but if we take it down, we take down their leader." Mario then started pressing buttons on the console in front of him at random, trying to get the ship to move. Anything that had words on them were in a different language that no one had seen before, so they didn't have a clue what anything did.

"Hey, do you know what you're doing?" Link asked.

"No."

"What? Then why are you messing with that?"

"Do you know what to do?" Realizing the truth, Link backed off.

"I see your point." Everyone then took a seat at the consoles, and tried to get the Nintendo 64 to do something. After a few tries, they could hear a small hum getting louder, and the ship was starting to float off the ground.

"Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of this! It looks like these are the flight controls." Mario said. Mario then had the ship vertically lifting, and they were then at the same height as the enemy ships.

The screen in front of them showed that the ships were now in close range, and the two CDs in front of the mother ship began firing multiple lasers at the 64.

"Man, we're getting shot at from everywhere!" D.K. said.

"Just how many shots can we take?" Sonic wondered. As Zero observed the controls that he sat in front of, he pressed a button, and a screen of the enemy ships came up on his monitor with a crosshair on the screen. As Zero moved his hands over a pad on the panel, the crosshairs moved along with them. As he clenched his right hand, large, white lasers came out of the tips on the right side of the ship's controllers. The lasers hit the CD on the right head on, and just the six lasers that hit it was enough to blast it to bits.

"Ha, I think I like this." Zero said. As Mario was getting better with the controls, he was able to fly around to avoid some of the enemy's fire. As they moved to the left while keeping the front of the ship pointed at the other CD, Zero sent another round of lasers at it, and sent another fiery wreckage to the ground.

With the two CDs down, the mother ship stepped up to the plate. As it approached them, the two poles with claws at the end in front of the ship moved to the sides. With the change in position, the ship had become a giant robot with long arms.

"It transformed?" Ash said in amazement.

"Great, just what we need. It's faster in its ship form, but in that form, it's much more formidable in battle." Sonic said.

Zero took a shot at the enemy, but the ship put its hands right in front of the lasers, and they bounced right off.

"Whoa! That thing can reflect lasers!" The ship then pointed it hands at them and started firing its own lasers. They were much more powerful than the CDs' lasers, as they caused the ship to shake a lot more.

The monitor that Link sat in front of showed a map of the 64 that showed its shielding, and all over it was going down as the Zox ship hit them. They were in a ship that no one knew how to control when they needed to know the most. They worked hard to find the four keys to obtain this great power, and now it looked like they were going to be shot down just after they got in it. Perhaps the power that was told in the legend of the Nintendo 64 was just a pipedream.

Link didn't have any idea what he was doing at his console, and in his frustration, he slammed his fist on the control board. As he did, his left fist hit four buttons next to each other at the same time.

No one knew it at the time, but Link had triggered a transformation of their own. A red light began flashing in the room along with an alarm. As the Zox mother ship noticed that something was going on, it stopped firing, and stood ready for what might happen.

The two controllers in front of the ship at the center folded downwards, and the controller on the left and the right folded to the sides. Other parts of the main body of the ship began folding around the poles of the controllers, and just after ten seconds, the transformation was completed.

From the map of the ship at Link's monitor, he could see their current shape. They now looked much like a giant robot, with two of the controllers as legs and two as arms, and them controlling it from the head.

Coming over from the amazement, Mario looked back at the mother ship. Using the controls in front of him, Mario ran towards the ship. As the Zox saw them charging right for them, they thrust the right arm right at the 64, but Mario used the rockets on the back to slide to the right, where he then swung their right arm into the Zox.

The 64 then clasped its hands together, and when releasing them created a ball of energy in between them. They then shot the ball right at the Zox ship. They were able to dodge it by flying upwards, but just barely. The shear heat of the ball melted part of the ship.

The Zox, with a dent in their ship the size of the 64's fist and a melted underside, realized that they had underestimated their enemy. They had already investigated planet Nintendo enough, so the commander relayed a message to all the other ships, initiating plan O.

As Mario stood ready to attack again, the screen turned from an outside view to a view of the entire planet. It showed that CDs had positioned their selves all over the planet, and they were charging their main weapons all at once. Sonic suddenly stood up, panicking.

"No! Not again! It's Mobius all over again!" Fear was clearly painted on his face. When the screen returned to the outside view, they saw that three CDs had just approached them, and they too were charging their cannons, preparing for the final attack on Nintendo.

As they looked at the mother ship, they saw that it was flying upwards, and transforming back into its ship form.

"That's the lead ship you said?" Mario asked grimly.

"Yes." Sonic replied.

"If we stop him, then we can stop the CDs." Mario then had the ship jump off the ground and fly after the mother ship.

They kept flying upwards until they noticed that they were now in outer space. The Zox were still in front of them, but it was too late. The ship activated its warp engine, and blasted off from sight. As they looked back at their home planet, all the CDs fired at once. From the distance, they could see explosions happening everywhere. When they realized that it was too late, they merely drifted in space, stunned, watching in horror. The planet they tried to save was now covered in craters.

Thoughts of loved ones, the state of their homes, and anger towards the Zox rushed through everyone's mind.

"Peach, Luigi, are you alive?"

"Blast, I failed! Hyrule is probably just a smoldering crater. I'm a failure."

"First Mobius, now Nintendo. How many planets will I watch be destroyed by the Zox?"

"Those Zox, I'm gonna pound their face in so hard!"

They stood like that, watching the planet for about ten minutes, thinking and complaining to their selves, when Ash, who was holding tight to Pikachu, spoke up.

"Wh...what do we do now?" He said through his tears.

"There's only one thing we can do now." Mario said as he looked to where the Zox went. Link turned the 64 back into its ship form, and they too activated their warp engine, and blasted off.

They didn't know how many people died, or how much of the planet was destroyed, but they knew that there was nothing they could do now, except to chase after the Zox mother ship, and end the cycle of destruction.

Note: So that some of you don't get the wrong idea, this is not the end.


	11. Chapter 7: Metroid: Frozen Heart Part 1

**Chapter 7**

**Metroid: Frozen Heart**

Being on a ship they knew little about, everyone wondered about, except for Mario and Sonic who stayed at the controls, looking out for any enemies. Link and D.K. walked down one of the hallways and came to a door. When they stepped near it, it automatically slid open. Inside, they saw several beds.

As they lied down on the beds, finding them quite comfortable, they heard Ash shout.

"Hey, guys, over here!" As they ran over to where they heard the voice coming from, they saw Ash standing in a room with several tables and chairs, and a wall with three circles on them. Ash stood there with a bowl of ramen in his hands.

"Hey, where'd you get that?" Kong asked.

"Well, I was just standing here looking at the wall when my stomach growled, and thought how nice it would be to have a bowl of ramen, then that circle on the wall opened and inside was sitting a hot bowl of it!" Ash immediately started gulping it down.

"Wait! That might be...." Link tried to stop him, but it was too late.

"Mmmmm! Just like mom makes it!" Link thought that food coming out of nowhere was too good to be true. If perhaps food was stored here ever since the ship was built, then it should be horribly rotten, yet Ash seemed just fine.

Donkey Kong then went up to the wall and thought of something, and when the panel opened up, a banana cream pie was sitting there.

"Hey, all right!" D.K. then began devouring it. It had been a while since any of them had a chance to eat, so Link decided to go with it. When Link thought of something to eat, the panel opened and a plate of Kakariko Fried Cucco sat there.

As they sat at the table eating, Zero walked in.

"Hey, you're the guy who saved us back at the desert, right? Thanks. Say, um, what's your name?" Ash asked.

"You don't know his name? You didn't know Sonic or D.K. at first, and now you don't know Zero? Where have you been?" Link asked.

"Huh? Oh, well, I guess I've been spending all my time doing Pokemon battles." Ash said, while trying to laugh away his embarrassment. Pikachu, who was eating on the table, looked at Ash and sighed. Link then got up from the table, wiped his mouth, and went to Zero.

"Sorry, things were a little hectic when you first came, and we didn't have a proper chance to talk. So, since you're here, I take it you've decided to come along with us and join our fight."

"Indeed. There were reports of large, circular ships attacking certain lands. When I saw one going towards the Sand Wilderness, I hitched a ride. While I was there, I received a communication from Zelda, informing me of the situation. I'm sure you could use my help."

"Of course, we're quite grateful." Their talk was cut short when Mario's voice was heard from speakers all over the ship."

"We spotted the mother ship! Everyone get back here!" Everyone came back to the control room where they took their seats. Up on the main screen, they could see that the Zox ship was no longer at warp, and they had done the same. Up ahead, there was a large asteroid field.

"Are they doing what I think they're doing?" Link questioned. Sure enough, the ship flew into the field of randomly floating rocks. Mario kept them going on the same path.

"You're not going in there, are you?" Zero asked.

"Of course I am." Mario said with determination.

"Do you know what the odds are of successfully navigating an asteroid field?"

"Never tell me the odds." They flew in, and all around them were flying rocks. The Zox ship was right in front of them, and they weren't going to loose sight.

"Zero!"

"I got it." Zero started taking aim at the ship, and fired several shots. They were both flying in erratic directions to avoid being hit by the asteroids, and thus it was difficult to hit the enemy. For some reason, it didn't retaliate, but merely evaded.

"Mario, asteroid, nine 'o clock!" Sonic shouted. He was in front of a monitor that showed everything that was around them for several miles, and he could spot large obstacles that came their way. Mario lowered the ship, just as an asteroid five times larger than the 64 flew over them. They continued following the Zox until it went behind a large rock, and when it did, two CDs flew out from the side.

"I lost track of the mother ship. It's as if it disappeared." Sonic said, confused at why he couldn't find it. The two CDs then came right towards them with lasers firing right at them. Mario turned to the right to avoid the shots, but as he did, he ran against a large asteroid. Everyone in the ship was pushed to the right from the impact, and scraped the right side of the ship. A loud screech sounded throughout the ship as they did.

Mario then sped up as one of the CDs came at them, and flew under it. Now, they were being chased by the one while the other was still in front. Taking advantage of the rocks, Mario flew past three of asteroids that were just about to collide with each other. As the CD followed it, it was caught in between the asteroids, and crushed.

The CD in front of them began shooting at them, and Zero returned fire. Their shots missed each other, but the lasers collided with the surrounding asteroids, blasting them to thousands of pieces. Poundings could be heard all over the ship as the smaller pieces hit them, like a heavy hailstorm.

Zero was about to make a clear shot, but a large asteroid came right in between them, and they had to pull up. The back of the ship scrapped the rock as they tried to pull away, and as they continued, they found their selves out of the field.

"Where did the CD go?"

"I don't know, I lost track of it. Eh, there's too much interference with all these asteroids. Wait, it's right behind us!" Sonic said. The ship began firing multiple lasers at them, and they were hitting every one. It looked like they were in for a good beating, but all of the sudden, something crashed right through the CD, too fast for them to see what it was.

"What was that?" Mario wondered. As he said that, the screen went from a view of showing the destroyed CD to a picture of large blocks in odd shapes.

"Those look like...Tetris blocks?" Mario said.

"Hmm, I've heard that there are occasional Tetris blocks that brake loose from their squares, and then freely float through space." Link said. Just then, the words 'free-floating Tetris blocks' appeared on the screen next to the blocks.

"Hey, did you see that?" Sonic shouted.

"Instead of that funky language, it's now in English." D.K. said.

"Hmmm. Mario, you're growing more accustomed to the controls, right?" Zero asked.

"Yes."

"It could be that the ship is actually becoming more accustomed to us. I think this ship is designed to observe its users, and adapt to it."

"You mean, the ship is watching us right now? Learning from us?" Ash asked.

"Exactly."

"Hey, I spotted the mother ship! It's heading to the planet forty-five degrees to the right of us. It says the planet is called Tallon IV." Sonic said.

"All right, let's head to Tallon IV then."

They once again lost track of the Zox ship somehow, but last they saw, it landed somewhere in an area called Phendrana Drifts. They flew over the area to find the ship, but they stopped when they found a familiar spacecraft. Everyone got out to inspect the craft, except for Zero, who stayed to watch the ship.

"Woah! Oh man, it's freezing out here!" Ash said as he stepped outside.

"Seesh, it's not that bad." D.K. said.

"Easy for you to say; you've got fur."

"There's no wind, no clouds, and it's sunny. This is the best it's going to be, so be grateful." Link said. They then walked towards the spacecraft, and sure enough, it was the one that belonged to Samus Aran.

"So where do you think she is?"

"No idea. She might have an idea where the Zox are, so we should probably try to find her. Though they set out to find Samus, it was actually Samus who found them. Soon after they left her ship, she jumped out from behind a pillar of ice with her arm gun pointed right at them. Samus stood in front of them, confused at the sight.

"What? What are you people doing here?" Samus said, still pointing her gun at them.

"Woah! Hey, calm down, it's me, Mario."

"For what reason could you and everyone else possibly be here?"

"Come on, you act as if you didn't know me!"

"I've met many creatures before, ones who could easily disguise their selves, and you appearing now is too much of a coincidence."

"If I'm not really Mario, then would I know that, you hate mushroom pasta, but acted as if you liked it? It was when you came to the Mushroom Kingdom for the first time on a delivery mission and we invited you to dinner. You didn't want to offend Peach, so you told her you liked it, but it was obvious you couldn't stand it." Samus then lowered her arm gun.

"Heh, you're right, I never could stand mushrooms. Sorry I doubted you; I can never be too cautious. I got a signal that several life forms were circling my ship, so I came to make sure it was safe. You really are Mario, and Link, Sonic, and D.K."

"And Zero."

"He's here too?"

"Yeah, he's in our ship."

"Hey, what about me?" Ash said, feeling left out.

"Oh, do I know you?"

"I'm Ash, from Pallet Town!"

"Why do you say what town you're from when introducing yourself? I mean, what's the point?" D.K. asked.

"Huh?" Ash said.

"Hey Samus, what's with the new look?" Mario asked.

"What?" Aran then realized that she had not seen any of them since her fusion with the metroid DNA.

"Ah, it's a long story, but what are you all doing here? Just for one of you to be here is strange."

"Aran, have you heard of the Zox?" Link asked. Samus could tell from his tone that there was something dangerous about the Zox.

"No, I haven't. What's going on?"

"The Zox come from an alternate dimension, and they've invaded Nintendo. We used an ancient ship to try to stop them, but, we failed. Last we saw Nintendo, it was covered in massive explosions."

"What? Oh man, Nintendo? The kind of power needed to take down that size of a planet would be incredible."

"We've been chasing the mother ship, and it landed somewhere around here. Have you seen it?"

"I'm sorry, but I haven't seen anything like that."

"What did you mean earlier by _and you appearing now is too much of a coincidence_?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, well you see, I'm currently tracking down a bounty named Roco. He's wanted for the destruction of colony 146 of planet Zelos, and the deaths of seven million people."

"Sounds like a dangerous criminal."

"Yes, and that's why I have to find him and bring him in. The Zelos government wants him alive. I've been searching for him for two weeks now, and my latest lead takes me here. When I saw you all here, I thought you might be some sort of trap set up by Roco, so that's what I meant that it would be a coincidence."

"Hey, since we're both looking for someone here, how about we work together?" Ash asked.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I work alone. I've already spent too much time here, so bye." Samus jumped over the icy river near them and ran off.

"Hey wait!" Mario tried to stop her, but it was already too late.

"Ah, forget her, we can take care of this our self. Hey, how about you guys search the area from the ship, and I'll scout the area on ground." Sonic said.

"Sounds like a plan, but let's go back to the ship first; Zero said he wanted to show us something later when we left." Link said. As they walked to the platform that led into the ship, Link stopped and grabbed Mario's shoulder as he noticed something.

"Hey, Mario, look at that."

"Huh? What is it?"

"Back in that asteroid field, we scrapped the ship against a large asteroid, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then why are there no marks of it?" Mario looked at the ship, and noticed too that there was no damage on it.

"Wow, you're right! Could the ship be that strong?"

"I don't think so. The whole ship shook and we could hear the screech as we hit it. And look at the back, we got hit several times by that CD's lasers. There's no damage there either. Surely there should be something."

"I don't know. I guess we should just consider ourselves lucky. There's still stuff we don't know about this ship, you know."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." As they went to see Zero, they found him tinkering with something in the control room.

"So what did you want to show us?"

"These." In his hands, Zero held five hand-held radios. "We can keep in touch with these. Plus, they have a tracking signal so we can locate each other."

"What about you Zero?" Ash asked. Zero looked at him with a faint smirk.

"I already have a radio inside my head."

"Oh."

"All right, when I find something, I'll let you know!" Sonic then rushed back out into the snowy land to scout the area. As soon as he walked out, the door behind him closed, and the ship began to lift off. Sonic then looked for the highest mountain in the vicinity and ran to the top.

Sonic was able to see the whole area from on top of the mountain. As he looked at the snow-covered land around him, he didn't see any Zox ship, but there were many hills and crevasses that it could hide in.

"Heh, this place reminds me off Ice Cap. I had some good times back there." The sense of adventure began to fill in Sonic, and he decided to go with it. He ran down the hill, kicking up piles of snow as he ran by. As he came down to the bottom, he was coming towards an icy river. There were chunks of ice floating in it, so he jumped on one of them, and with the great momentum he had, he began surfing on the chunk of ice.

Sonic always loved a good thrill, and his own speed gave him the ability to do so. He always sought out new and exciting things, and the faster he went, the more exciting it was. As he came to the other end of the river, he jumped off just before the ice slammed and broke apart against the shore. Sonic continued running and went inside a cave. As he ran through, he could see that there was once water running through, as there was a consistent layer of ice on the ground. It was difficult to run on it, so instead he steadied his feet and slid on it.

Sonic slid around like a skateboarder going down a half-pipe, sliding up and down the walls. As he went further in, the path began to be much steeper. Soon, he was practically falling straight down, and ahead the cave twisted into a spiral. Sonic slid down the cave like a spiraling slide, and when it straightened and became less steep, he could see light at the end.

The closer Sonic got to the end of the cave, the more he could see that there wasn't any ground. As Sonic leapt out of the cave, he saw that the ground was several hundred feet below him, and behind him was a giant pillar of ice, where a waterfall once was. Most people would be terrified, but Sonic smiled all the way down. Below him was a frozen river where the water once flowed into, and positioning his body just right, and falling at the right angle, he landed on the ice without harm, and continued to slide.

As Sonic slid around, he saw a cave to the right of him, and noticed that there were flashes of light coming from inside. Suddenly remembering why he was there in the first place, Sonic quietly approached the cave. He stood by the entrance, and could hear noises coming from inside. Sonic turned on the radio and whispered.

"Hey, guys, I think I found something."

"Good. We'll be there in a sec."

They landed the ship a good distance from the cave so they wouldn't be seen, and met up with Sonic.

"Do you think that's them?"

"I don't know. It's too small for the Zox ship to be hiding in."

"What are you guys doing here?" Everyone was surprised as they heard the angry voice behind them. As they turned around, they saw that it was Samus.

"What are we doing? We're looking for the Zox, what do you think?"

"This is the hiding place of Roco! Now get out of here before you mess something up!"

"Come on, it's just one guy, right? We outnumber him!" Ash said. He then ran inside the cave with Pikachu ready to strike.

"No wait! Stop!" Samus shouted. She ran after him to stop him, and the others followed. All of the sudden, a panel on both sides of the wall opened and a glowing bar came out. Electricity-looking energy came out from them, and they began to float off the ground, and became frozen in place from the head down.

"Argh! You see? This is why I work alone!"

"Uh...sorry."


	12. Chapter 7: Metroid: Frozen Heart Part 2

As they helplessly floated there, they saw that the flashes in the cave stopped, and it sounded like someone set something down. That's when they noticed a shadow of a person walking towards them. Around the corner stepped out a man with short blond hair. He was wearing a silver suit to protect him from the cold.

"Well, well, well, who do we have here? If it isn't the feared bounty hunter Samus Aran? More outlaws fear you than the famous Captain Falcon. Oh, and there's even four of the heroes from Nintendo?" Roco said. His voice showed great calmness, even a tone of superiority.

"Four?" Ash wondered. "Hey, wait a minute, what about me?"

"Oh, do I know you?"

"Argh! Forget it!" Ash was fed up of being the only one in the group who was not famous.

"Well, now that you've all found me, I guess I should be worried." Roco mocked.

"For killing seven million people, you better be!" Samus said furiously.

"What? You think numbers matter?" Roco said, chuckling. "The bomb I built was a new design, and if I wanted to see just what would happen if it were to detonate in a dense, populated area, there was only one way to do it."

"What? You actually disregard the value of life that much? Your heart is as cold as the ice around us!" Link said in anger.

"Ha ha ha. Let me give you a piece of advice: If you want to be able to accomplish your desires, you can't let such petty things like morals get in your way."

"Abandoning morals can only result in chaos!"

"Heh, I didn't think a _hero_ would understand. Anyways, if I kill you all, I'll then be well known to outlaws."

"Why would you want to be known among low-lives?" D.K. asked.

"Because, my hairy friend, I'm an arms dealer. I create and sell my own technological masterpieces. If I'm well known, everyone will come to me for business! Well, it's been nice knowing you, but now you need to die."

"What? No! Ah, Pikachu, zap that machine!" Since Pikachu was able to move its head, it used its thundershock to zap the machine that held them. As the electricity bolt went flying, however, it scattered and went in all sorts of directions, missing its target.

"Oh, you didn't know that the field that holds you disrupts the flow of electricity?" Not knowing of a way out of their predicament, they could only float there and face their executioner.

Roco reached into his pocket and pulled out a small gun, and pointed it right at Samus first.

"Good bye!" Just as Roco said that, they heard a laser blade from behind them, and the machine broke. As they fell to the floor, they saw Zero standing behind them.

"How many times do I have to save you guys?" Zero said, smiling. As soon as Samus had her feet on the ground, she took aim at Roco, who then took a small remote from his pocket. Not sure of what it did, Samus shot a small laser at Roco, but once he pressed the button, he vanished in a flash of light, and the laser went right through where he once stood.

As Zero looked around, he heard a faint sound that only his robotic sound detectors could hear.

"Everyone, get out outside!" When they all ran out of the cave, the icy hill behind them broke apart as a ship came flying out of it. Roco was making a run for it, and if they didn't do something fast, he would get away. Samus tried firing at it, but from the height it was at, it was difficult for her to get a clear shot at the small, fast ship.

"D.K., throw me up there."

"What?"

"I said throw me up there!" Zero was obviously serious, so D.K. grabbed him by the feet, and began swinging him around in a circle. When he let go of him, Zero went flying head first towards the ship. As he got closer, he held his glowing blade with both hands. As the ship was making its ascent, Zero came up from behind. He placed his feet on the side of the ship, and held on by lodging his sword into the engine.

Electricity sparked around the sword, and the sound of the engine was dieing out. The ship had lost its power, and began falling back to the surface of Tallon IV. Zero removed his blade, and without it to hold on, pushed off the ship with his feet and fell down away from the ship.

"Zero! Is he nuts? How can he live from that fall?" Samus said.

"Charizard! I choose you!" Ash called out Charizard so that he could grab Zero, but nothing came out. "Huh? What's wrong?"

"Ash, we're several million miles from Nintendo. I don't think the transporter can reach you here." Link said.

"Ah! You mean I can't call me Pokemon?" They wanted to save Zero, but there wasn't anything they could do.

As Zero fell, he aimed for the frozen river. When got close, he charged and fired his blaster, melting and breaking apart the ice and revealing the water under it. Zero aimed for the hole, and fell into the water. At the same time, Roco's ship crashed over in the distance. While everyone ran to see if Zero was all right, Ash stood there, then turned around and walked in the opposite direction.

"I can't use my Pokemon? What good am I if I can't use my Pokemon? Without them, I'm just some boy. How can I help heroes like them?" Once Ash had walked some distance from them, he dropped to his knees, and sat in the snow. Pikachu hopped off his shoulder and faced Ash.

"Pika pi chu?" Ash smiled faintly.

"You're right, I still have you buddy. Still...." Ash looked up at the sky, thinking things over, when he saw something fall from the sky.

"What's that?" Ash stood up, and the fiery object crashed into the ground just a few feet in front of him. The crash impacted with the ground so hard it made a crater, and knocked Ash back. He got back up and looked to see what it was.

"What is this thing? It looks like it was a shooting star or something." Ash didn't know what it was, but he picked up the small object, took out a handkerchief from his pocket, and wrapped it up in it. "It probably wouldn't hurt to keep this. Come on Pikachu, let's go back to the ship."

As they got to where Zero dived in, another charged laser blasted out from under the ice, and Zero jumped out.

"Zero! You're all right! That was some pretty cool stuff back there." Sonic said. Zero then turned his attention to the left.

"Don't thank me just yet." They looked over to where Zero was looking, and up on a small hill stood Roco in a silver metallic, full-body suit.

"What? How could you possibly be...."

"Alive? Come now Samus, do you think someone with my intelligence would die by a simple crash?" Samus ran towards Roco. "What? Do you really think you can kill me?"

"Do you really think I won't try?" Samus jumped towards Roco and fired a missile, and Roco did a back flip to avoid the missile's blast.

"This suit doesn't just protect me with it's shiny armor, it also enhances my speed and strength."

"Even so, you don't have much strength to speak of."

"It's more than enough to stand against you." Mario and the others ran to help Samus, but she shouted at them saying,

"Stay back! This guy is mine!"

"Yes, stay here and fight. You're the one I really want to kill anyways." Roco reached for his back and pulled out a rifle. He fired at Samus, and Samus ran to the side to avoid it. It was an open area, and hard to avoid the lasers, so she rolled into a ball, and became buried in the snow. Roco looked around to see where Samus went, but then something exploded from under his feet, and Roco was sent flying backwards. Samus came out of her ball form near where she laid her bomb, and immediately began firing at him.

While Roco was being shot at, he threw a small ball at Samus. The small ball exploded and knocked Samus back. She then quickly stood back up and fired a missile at him, but Roco just stood there.

As the missile came towards him, he put his hands out in front of him, and some sort of sound waves began pulsating from his hands. The sound waves knocked the missile from its course, and it shot straight up. It then started turning around and going in all sorts of direction, until it finally came back towards Samus. She managed to avoid being hit directly, but the explosion itself hit her.

Just as she got back up, Roco threw another small ball at her, but this time when it hit, it erupted in a flash of light, and Samus became stuck in a foamy gunk. Samus tried to get out, but she was stuck waist up in the goop.

"Ha ha ha ha! Stuck, Samus Aran? How about I give you a hand?" Roco grabbed Samus by the shoulders, and a surge of electricity came out of his hands and into Aran. Every part of her body was shaking with the volts surging through her. Her suit was protecting her somewhat, but she was still receiving a good deal of it. She could feel that her skin was beginning to char from electricity.

Link and Zero readied their blades, and Mario, D.K. and Sonic were ready to jump in.

"I said...I got...this!" Samus shouted, and finding the strength to save herself, broke her right arm free, and blasted Roco right in the chest. With Roco stunned with surprise for a moment, Samus used her blaster to break free of the gunk.

Roco had stepped back from Samus, so she ran towards him. She ran into Roco, pushing him back more and more, and kept on running. Once she gained enough speed, her suit flashed with different colors as she ran with amazing speed. Samus was delivering lightning fast punches with such force that Roco was flying in the air, continually being pushed back as Samus punched him again and again with her amazing speed.

Once she figured he had enough, she stopped, and let Roco finally land on the ground, skidding and tearing up the ground as he did. Dents were all over his armor, and Samus doubted he could possibly live after that assault. With his helmet on, however, there was no telling if he was dead or unconscious. While he laid there, the sky suddenly went dark, but returned to normal after a minute. Samus didn't pay much attention, but Mario and Sonic were all too familiar with what happened.

Then, to Aran's surprise, Roco coughed, and then weakly stood up.

"Eh, heh heh, is that all you got? Come on, I'm ready for you." Roco weakly walked backwards up the hill, taunting Samus, though she could clearly see he wasn't in any shape to fight now.

"You've lost Roco, now turn yourself over so you don't get killed." Samus walked towards Roco.

"Lost? Never." Once Samus was on top of the hill, she froze in terror at what she saw. There was a clear view for miles on top of the hill, and an army was marching across it, right for them. Hundreds of thousands of Zox marched with laser rifles in hand, all with an expression of hatred in their face. One look at them would send fear into anyone's heart.

Roco was confused at why Samus was suddenly struck with fear, and honestly asked what the matter was.

"What?" Samus turned around and ran down the hill as countless lasers flew towards them. Roco was caught in the onslaught, and was hit until the lasers struck through his armor. The lasers continued to hit him until his body was horribly mutilated, and was without a single doubt dead.

Samus joined the group, safe behind the hill.

"So, is that the Zox?"

"Yep." Samus quickly thought about the possibility of helping them. The bounty she was chasing was now dead, so she couldn't collect the money on him. She preferred to work alone, but it looked like there was a lot of these Zox. Besides, she didn't have anything else to do at the moment. She then sighed and said,

"Why not?" Samus then ran off.

"Hey, where are you going?" Mario shouted at Samus, who was already some distance away.

"Two ships are better than one!" She shouted back. Everyone ran back inside the 64. Mario ran into the control room and saw Ash sitting inside.

"Hey, I wondered where you were. Why did you go in here?"

"Oh, well, I thought that...."

"Look, it's all right, just grab a seat because this could get bumpy." As they lifted off, several lasers were pounding against the ship. Luckily, they weren't that powerful, and they were able to get out of range quickly. Once they got into the upper atmosphere, they saw that the Zox were storming the planet. The screen then changed to a view of Samus in the pilot's seat of her ship. Samus was now flying beside the 64.

"It appears that they are trying to take over the planet. They'll realize that they've wasted their time with bringing out that many soldiers once they find out that there are no intelligent beings there." The main screen then switched to a view of outer space as Sonic spotted the Zox mother ship.

"The ship is escaping again!"

"I get it now." Link said. "The reason the ship disappeared from are sensors is not because it was hidden on the planet's surface, but because it was never there in the first place! It went back to its dimension to call in back up."

"Darn, just going after the mother ship is hard enough." Mario started after the mother ship, but six CDs came up from the planet, and stood in their way. They immediately started firing at the ship, and in their present form, they couldn't put up much of a fight.

"Hey Samus, can you keep those guys off of us for a few seconds?"

"Sure thing." Samus flew right in between the swarm of CDs flying around the 64 while firing off a few shots at them. Since Samus was the one who was retaliating against the Zox, they chased after her.

Samus was able to maneuver a little better because of her ship's smaller size, though she didn't have a whole lot of firepower. As she flew around, constantly changing her direction to avoid fire, she was able to buy enough time for the 64 to transform without them getting hit in the process.

Now in their robot form, the 64 blasted off towards the CDs. The pilot of one of the CDs saw that one of their enemies was coming from behind, so he turned around. The CD fired rapidly at the approaching ship, but their lasers didn't seem to do much harm. As they came up to the CD, Mario thrust the arm right into it. They punched right through it, smashing it to bits as it exploded.

The signal from CD 78538-86 was lost, so the rest of the CDs turned around and went after the large, black ship. Lasers flew towards them everywhere, and the 64 was shaking from the impact, but their shielding was still good according to Link's monitor.

Mario flew between the CDs and grabbed hold of one of them, separating it from the group. The CD was about half the height of the 64 in its robot form, but they still managed to hold it. Turning back to the group, they threw the CD they held back at the others like a giant Frisbee. It crashed into one of them, exploding them both. Now, they were down to three.

Four lasers impacted the head of the 64 at the same time, and it shook the ship so hard, that the lights above them broke, and the only thing lighting the room was the light from the computers. Suddenly, a small door on the ceiling opened up, and large, robotic spider scrambled out.

"Ahh! What is that thing?" Ash yelled. Link drew his sword, but the bot continued crawling on the ceiling, and went to the broken light. It moved its arms around the light so fast that its movements were blurred, and then the light came on, perfectly fixed. It then moved on to the next light.

"It seems that this ship has robots all over that repairs things. That would explain the absence of damage on the outside." Link said as he put his sword back in its sheath.

"A ship that repairs itself? Man, this thing gets better and better!" Sonic said.

"Are you finished? We're still fighting here!" Mario said, frustrated. He was having trouble fighting the ships when the lights went out.

They flew backwards while still facing the CDs, and Zero began firing at them. Several lasers came out of the tips of the 64's hands, and they managed to take down two more. They aimed for the next one, but it flew behind them, and fired at their back. They took several hits, but then a warp star suddenly crashed through the CD, ripping it apart.

As they turned around, they saw Kirby riding the warp star. He smiled and waved at them, so they waved back at them with the 64. Kirby then zoomed off back to his home.

"You know, Kirby kind of reminds me of Smartball. They're both small and round, with big mouths." Mario said.

"Who?" Link asked.

"Ah, never mind. I'm just glad he was able to help."

"But how did he know we were here?"

"Hey Samus, do you have any idea how he found us?" A communication link was opened as Mario asked the question.

"What? Oh, well, I might have sent out a message or two."

"All right, let's get moving then." Since they would probably encounter more danger, they stayed in robot form, and blasted off to where the mother ship went.

They only traveled for a few minutes until they caught up with the mother ship. At first it looked like it was just sitting there, but then they noticed a swirling black vortex behind it growing larger.

"Mario, they're opening a dimensional portal! I'm not sure what dimension it leads to, but if we don't follow them we may never find them again!" Sonic said.

"Or we could be walking right into a trap." Link said.

"What do you say Mario? You're the one piloting this ship." D.K. said.

"It might be a trap, but that's a risk we're going to have to take." The portal had reached the size it needed to be for the mother ship to go through. The ship entered the portal, and disappeared from sight.

"Everyone ready? We're going in." Only Sonic had actually traveled between dimensions, so the rest of them had no idea what to expect, but they were amazed at what they saw.

As they entered, strange, green lines surrounded them, and everything went dark. They could however see the mother ship right ahead of them. The way that the green lines were positioned gave the appearance that they were in a tunnel. A layer of blue then surrounded them, and then they began to pick up speed. Balls of lights then rushed past them and the walls of the tunnel began to glow with different colors. The ship rumbled a bit as they seemed to travel at amazing speeds through this tunnel of brilliant lights.

The ship shook harder for a moment as the tunnel changed colors again, this time a bright white. The light was almost blinding, but as the ship calmed down, the strangest thing yet happened. Below them was a planet, and above them was an upside-down image of the same thing, both curving inward to form a tunnel.


	13. Chapter 8: Zox Armada Part 1

A/N: Sorry it's been a while since last update. I used to be ahead of what I posted, but now I've fallen behind. I'm not finished with chapter 8 yet, but I figured this was enough for a section. Next update whenever it's written.

P.S. Thank you Crazy Chocobo Girl for reading and reviewing my story!

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**Zox Armada **

"Huh? What? What's going on here?" Ash said.

"No, I was wrong, we're not going to an alternate dimension." Sonic explained. "We're slipping through it."

"Slipping through?"

"It's a method for traveling great distances. I don't fully understand it myself, but think of the alternate dimensions as separate entities grouped together. When you open a portal to an alternate dimension, you open the gap between the two entities and connect the dimensions. What happened here is that instead of entering one of the entities, we're traveling in the gap between the entities. So instead of actually entering an alternate dimension, we 'slip through' it. For some reason this causes the double vision you see there."

"I'm sure it's much more complicated than that, but I see what you're saying." Samus said.

"Anyways, when you create a dimensional portal, you can make the exit be anywhere in the dimension you're going to. If you want to travel to a far place but stay in the same dimension, you create a slip portal."

"So we'll still be in our dimension when we get to the other end then." They looked at the planet below them in the night sky. They could see that there was a large city down there as there were lights all across the lush landscape.

"Wow, it's beautiful. Sonic, do you know what that place is?" Ash asked.

"No clue. There is no known end to the amount of alternate dimensions." The ship started to shake again as the portal went back to glowing with different colors. The Zox mother ship ahead of them began to change course, and went to the edge of the portal. A hole in the portal opened up where the ship went, and disappeared as it went through.

Mario quickly tried to go into the hole that the ship went in, but he missed it. They kept on going and came to the end of the portal, and just as they returned to normal space, two CDs stood there charging their main weapon, and were just about to fire. It indeed was a trap, and it was too late for them to react.

Just before they were about to fire at them, several missiles came blazing at the CDs. Explosions erupted all around them, and the debris from the CDs floated away through space. They looked to where the missiles came from, and found a house on a pair of rockets. The heroes were saved once again, but this time they hadn't recognized their rescuer. A link was made to the flying home, and on the screen was an old, somewhat fat man with a white beard. Behind him was a woman with green hair vacuuming the floor.

"You all right over there?" The old man said. "Word has been spreading about you and the Zox. We spotted those CDs and came here to take them down, but we didn't expect to see you here."

"We're all right. Thank you for your help. If there was anything we could do to return the favor...." The man suddenly smiled at the words and replied by saying,

"Well, actually...." The green-haired woman then grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him across the room.

"Don't even think about it professor."

"Oh, you never let have any fun."

"Sorry about that, he can get kind of rude at times. Hey, if you're looking for any of those Zox ships, we saw a big one just behind you."

"Thanks, uh...." Mario was going to thank her, but he didn't catch her name.

"It's Marina, and you're welcome. I hope we see you again sometime." Marina smiled and turned off the link. They then had the screen switch back to Aran's ship.

"Just a message or two, huh?"

"What?" Samus said sheepishly.

The trap that they had fallen into placed them several thousand miles from where the mother ship had ended up. They stayed in robot form because of all the danger they had been running into, and at their maximum speed in that form, it took them half an hour to catch up, but once they did, they found that the Zox were waiting for them.

The mother ship stood there in robot form with its arms folded. Corneria was just behind it to the left. The beauty of the planet however was quickly disrupted as their main screen switched to a view of a Zox inside the mother ship.

"Attention warriors of dimension N, I am war master Karlnak." He said in a deep, guttural voice. He was even bigger and more muscular than the other Zox soldiers, and he wore a different uniform, signifying his superiority.

"Dimension N?" D.K. questioned.

"Yes, we name each dimension we encounter. Because Nintendo is the name of the planet we first encountered, we named this dimension N." Karlnak's attention then turned to Sonic's. He grinned as he said, "Your hedgehog friend came from dimension S." Sonic was filled with anger as he looked at Karlnak's evil grin. He was the same person who invaded Mobius, and Sonic couldn't stand it to see him breathing.

"Why are you talking to us? You invaded our home and then destroyed it without ever saying a word." Mario questioned.

"Because I am congratulating you."

"Congratulating us? What for?" Link asked, completely taken back by the statement.

"You are one of the few dimensions that have actually put up a good fight."

"So what's your point?" Zero asked.

"Because you have shown great strength, I am offering you the chance to surrender. If you surrender now, then no more lives will be lost. So what do you say? This opportunity isn't given to too many people, so I suggest you take it."

"No! Don't listen to him! A life under their rule is no life at all!" Sonic shouted.

"Give up all our rights to live?" Mario questioned, scoffing at the thought.

"Liberty is one of the things worth fighting for." Samus said.

"We would rather die than be under your rule." D.K. said.

"How about I give you an offer, Karlnak." Zero said. "Leave this dimension and stop your conquests, and we'll let _you_ live."

"Very well, you had your chance. Now die, fools!" As he said that, a portal opened behind the mother ship, and CD after CD came flying out. It wasn't long before a whole armada faced the heroes of dimension N.

"Oh man, these odds are horrible!" Ash exclaimed.

"I know, they don't stand a chance. You ready over there, Samus?"

"Sure thing, Mario. Let's do this." As the 64 charged, so did the Zox, and a furious battle ensued. Everywhere they looked there were CDs and lasers flying in all direction, like a storm of flies.

They went straight forward, punching holes in the CDs that came up to them one by one. Their main intent was taking down the mother ship, but they had to get through the CDs first. Four were coming at them from all directions, and as they were in range, they rammed the feet and arms into them, and a CD was tuck to both hands and feet of the 64. As more came from behind, they threw the remains off of them and towards the approaching enemies, destroying them with the impact.

Many more were coming from all directions, so they clasped the hands together and formed an energy ball. As the several ships surrounded them, they quickly flew upwards and threw the ball into the group. The ball exploded, taking down more CDs then they bothered to count.

Samus was firing lasers and missiles at a ballistic rate, but so were her enemies. Two of them were close behind her, and she couldn't shake them. Another two were coming towards her up ahead, so she charged straight for them. Her ship was hit quite a few times as she came towards them, but as she flew right between the two, the two following her ran into the two up ahead, and exploded.

Out from the explosion of the CDs came another one. Samus turned her ship around and fired several missiles at it. She then turned on the other side and flew above the CD as the missiles impacted with it. She cut it a little too close though, as the bottom of her ship was hit from the explosion. She made it out in one piece, but her armor was getting low.

"Turn to the left! Look out for that laser! Now fire, you fool!" The Zox commander of the CD shouted at the pilot. "Don't get too close to that ship! Look out!" The pilot tried to get close so they could get a good shot at the 64, but then the huge fist of the 64 crashed through the ceiling of the control room, just behind the commander, and he was pulled into the vacuum of space along with his comrades.

"Careful Mario, our shielding is down to seventy percent now." Link cautioned. Mario knew that the ship was getting hit a lot by the lasers during the battle, but he was still sure that they would make it out of this okay.

"Not inviting us to the party?" A familiar voice spoke to them through the communication link.

"Fox?" A video of Fox appeared in the corner of the screen.

"Don't worry guys, we're here to help." On their screen, four Arwings rushed past them and joined in on the battle.

"Thanks, we appreciate it."

"No problem. This battle is scaring some of the people down on Corneria anyways." Fox then switched his link to his teammates. "All right guys, four-formation, go!"

"No sweat." Falco said. The four fighters flew together and fired at a CD all at once to increase their power. Once the CD blew apart, they broke formation and went after another. Again combining their firepower, they took down one CD after another. As they did this to one, however, Slippy got hit hard by one of the lasers, and they had to brake off formation.

"Sorry guys."

"Don't worry, let's split up now." Fox said. As they took their separate ways, Fox headed for a CD that was going after the 64. He rapidly fired at the center, taking chunks of the ship off around the hole at the center. Fox could see a small explosion come from the ship, and larger ones came after it. There was no time now to turn away from it, so he flew right through the middle of it, and the CD exploded as he past it.

Falco took down a CD, but just as he did, he found that another was chasing him. He flew up and down and zigzagged between the melee of ships, but the CD was still right on his tail, and each laser was getting closer to his Arwing. Falco then flew upwards and made a loop, and as he did, the CD kept going. Before the pilot of the CD could realize his mistake, Falco was already behind him, firing a nova bomb. The explosion was so massive that one of the other CDs ran into the explosion as it passed by, and was lit ablaze.

The amount of CDs had greatly lowered since they first started out, but there were still many flying around them. Zero had found that he could use different kinds of weapons depending on how he moved his hands over the control pad, and he was getting a good feel for it. Zero tried moving his hands in different ways, trying to see if the combinations would make the ship use any other handy moves.

As Zero stretched his three center fingers out, the 64's fingers opened and fired a bulky missile from each one. As one of the missiles collided with a CD, the missile broke apart, and ten more, smaller missiles spread from it, and once one of them hit a CD, it again broke apart into smaller missiles. With all the CDs being in such a close proximity, they had created a chain reaction.

"Everyone, get out of here!" Mario yelled out to the other ships. As they hurried away from the spreading danger, more and more explosions filled the scene. Once the 64 was clear from the battle area, they could see that the CDs were caught in the explosions. If they hadn't been in space, the loud, repeating noise would be almost unbearable. As the explosions slowed down and eventually stopped, seven CDs were still left, but they quickly fled the area.


	14. Chapter 8: Zox Armada Part 2

A/N: Fueled by inspiration, I've managed to get a lot done on this. Most of this was done before I entered chapter 8, but I'm trying to space the amount out. I don't know what you think about all these parts for the chapters, but I'm doing it so there isn't a mass of text to read on one page, and since my chapters tend to be long, I've had to split them up into parts. Hope this is all right.

* * *

Small dust particles to halves of CDs floated around in a field of debris. A Zox armada had stood against the warriors of dimension N, and failed.

"Starfox, are you all right? Come in!" Mario shouted to the video screen. A view of Fox then came up on the corner of the screen.

"Yeah, we're all right." More videos of people came up as they spoke.

"That was too close for comfort!"

"Ah, come on Slippy, it wasn't that bad." Falco said.

"Either way, we're through with that." Krystal said.

"Samus, are you all right?" The screen then switched to a view of Samus in her ship. The ship didn't look too good, as there were a few panels on the walls that were knocked loose and wires hanging out, with sparks flying here and there.

"Eh, those Zox were more than I expected." Samus said, trying to hide her disappointment. "I got pretty ruffed up back there. I don't think I can go on in this ship."

"Samus, there's a small docking bay at the bottom of our ship; come on board and you can get fixed up." Link said.

"Sounds good."

"Hey, how about you guys come on board too?"

"Sure! That ship of yours looks interesting." As Samus's damaged ship slowly approached the 64 along with the Arwings, Mario looked over to Sonic.

"Any idea where the mother ship is?"

"No. When the battle started, I couldn't find it in all the CDs."

"Do you think we got it?" D.K. asked.

"I doubt it. No way it could be all over that simply."

A door on the bottom of the 64 slid open and Samus flew in, along with the Starfox team. Once the door closed back up, the room was filled back up with air and returned to normal pressure. It wasn't a very large room, but it was just big enough to fit the five spacecrafts.

As Mario sat in the control room pondering about Karlnak, the door opened and Fox walked in, with everyone else close behind.

"Hey, Mario, how ya doing? I haven't seen you since the last Smash Bros. tournament!"

"Hey Fox." Mario stood up and walked over to Fox. Fox then raised his hand and they gave a high-five.

"I'm minding my own business when all of the sudden I get a message from Marina saying that some people from Nintendo are chasing a dimensional conquering race called the Zox. Man, what have I missed out on?" Fox chuckled. The whole ordeal seemed out of the ordinary, even for him.

Mario explained to the Starfox team about what had happened to them, as well as everyone else putting in their own statements.

"Then the Zox offered us to surrender and no longer have any casualties." Mario said.

"But no way we'd do that!" D.K. commented.

"Well, you've been busy, haven't you?" Falco said, chuckling.

"Hey, this is serious! Our dimension is at risk!" Slippy said.

"Seesh, I didn't mean it that way."

"We might not be in danger anymore. Our sensors don't detect the Zox anywhere." Ash said. Fox then pulled a communicator out of his pocket.

"Hey ROB, do our sensors pick up any of those Zox ships?"

"No Zox ships in present area." ROB said in his robotic voice.

"Those ships travel between dimensions. A little out of our detection area, don't ya think?" Zero said.

"So what's our next move then?" Sonic asked. Mario was thinking about their current situation, and realized that they had been working hard.

"Perhaps we should take a break." Zero was a little upset by his statement.

"A break? Karlnak could still be out there plotting his next attack! Should we really just sit back and let him?"

"I think Mario has a point." Link pointed out. "It's been a while since any of us have had a decent rest. We probably should rejuvenate before searching for any more Zox." Fox then had an idea.

"Hey! Corneria's New Year festival is tomorrow! You guys could rest up here, and then tomorrow come down and unwind."

"A festival?" Ash asked, now excited at the thought.

"Yeah! There's lots of food and games. There's a countdown at midnight to welcome the new year, but the fun stuff goes on the first day of the year. It's basically a big holiday." Slippy said.

"And in the meantime, we can have ROB search the debris field for any wreckage that looks like it came from the mother ship, so we can make sure if Karlnak survived or not."

"Well, considering we don't have any other options right now, I think it's a good idea." Samus said.

"All right then. Come down to the capital in ten hours, and we'll meet up there. We've got some business we need to take care of right now."

"Thanks! See you later then!" They said their good-byes as the Starfox team went back to their ships.

"So, does this mean we can go to sleep now?" Ash asked. Sonic stretched his body at the thought of it.

"Now that you mention it, it's been a while since I slept."

"Well, you guys go ahead and rest up then. I'll keep watch if something happens." Zero said.

"What about you?" D.K. asked.

"I don't sleep the way you do. Reploids need a recharging capsule to sleep in, which fully restores us. Since there is none here, I'll have to make due with my sub tank."

While everyone ate the food they thought of and went to bed, Zero sat in a chair in the control room. Finding some tools on the ship, Zero made some small repairs on himself. As he was repairing his left arm, Zero thought to himself.

"I don't understand. We're facing against an enemy powerful enough to take over the whole dimension, yet some of them don't take it seriously, especially Sonic and Ash. They act like life is just one adventure after another." Zero then stopped repairing his arm as he realized something.

"Yet, they always seem so happy. Does looking at life like that make one happy?" Zero then shrugged off the thought and continued working. "Eh, what am I saying? If our safety was left up to people like them, we would all be dead by now."

When it was getting close to the time that Fox mentioned, some of the others began waking up. When Mario was awake, he flew the ship down to the capital of Corneria. He found a grassy field where some other ships were parked, so he landed the 64 there.

As the door to the outside opened up, the morning sunlight shone into he ship. Corneria was quite a beautiful place with its grassy flatlands, tall mountains and clear blue sky. There were plenty of buildings, but they were spread out, not all congested like some cities. As Ash admired the scene, a blond-haired woman with a tight black shirt and jeans came up from behind him.

"Huh? Who are you?" Ash asked.

"Eh, come on." She said in an irritated voice.

"Huh? Samus? Oh! So that's what you look like under your suit?"

"Yes. I don't take it off that often, but wearing a battle armor at a festival would make a lot of people worry." After walking past a few other ships, they came to the main area. Everywhere they looked, there were people walking around, and booths lined up.

As they looked around, they began to notice that people were talking about the battle yesterday.

"Did you hear about that battle last night?"

"Yeah! Man, it was crazy, and all the military said about it was that it was a battle against two alien races that happened to come into our territory."

"That's it? Man, there has to be more than that!" Just then, the Starfox team walked out from the crowd, but they weren't wearing their usual clothing. They all wore green pants and sunglasses, but they wore different colored shirts.

"Hey, Fox!" Mario shouted. Fox then ran over to him, saying in a whispering voice,

"Shh! Don't say my name out loud!"

"Huh? What's going on?"

"We're famous around here. We wear disguises sometimes to keep back the crowds of fans. Call me James."

"F.C." Falco said

"Tom." Slippy said

"Karol." Krystal said.

"Oh, all right. Say, where's Peppy?"

"Heh, he said he's too old for these kind of things. He's back on the ship sleeping."

"Seems like Peppy has outgrown his name." Link commented.

"Hey, how come no one here knows about what really happened last night?" Sonic asked.

"When we left, we went to see general Pepper and explain to him about what happened." Falco said. "He decided that telling everyone about the Zox would only cause pandemonium, so he stated that it was just a fight between two alien races in our area."

"They should know what's going on, but I suppose it would cause much panic."

"Come on guys, we're here to have fun, not think about that!" Slippy said.

"Yeah, you're right. Now, everyone remembers where we're parked, right?" Mario asked. He then glanced behind him to see the giant black ship in the background. "Right, stupid question." Everyone then went their own way.

Ash walked down an aisle through the crowd along with Donkey Kong, and something caught his eye. He came up to a booth with several plates of food on a table. It looked like some sort of pastry in a purple sauce. It looked interesting, so he and D.K. took a plate.

"Hey, this is good! What is it?" D.K. wondered.

"I don't know. It's hard to describe the taste, but it's definitely sweet. Hey Pikachu, try some!" Pikachu took a bite as he held up the plate, and Pikachu then showed a face of great disgust.

"Pika pi!" Pikachu spitted it out.

"Ha ha ha, I guess it's not for Pokemon."

"That'll be ten credits." The dog cornerian said from behind the table.

"Huh? Credits?" D.K. asked.

"Yeah, you know, money! What, did you think this was free?"

"Um...yes? Oh wait, I have some." Ash pulled some coins out of his pocket and handed it to him.

"What's this?" The man was confused.

"Money."

"What? No one in the entire Lylat system uses this kind of currency! It's useless!" An almost evil grin then shone on the dog's face. "Well, I guess you'll just have to pay it off then." Ash and D.K. gulped.

Zero and Falco were walking in the crowd when Falco saw the World War II game.

"Hey Zero, wanna play a game?"

"What kind of game?"

"It's a virtual reality game. You play as a soldier in a world war on this planet called Earth."

"A battle game? I do plenty of that back on Nintendo, and I wouldn't call it fun."

"Yeah, but it is when you the weapons don't hurt you."

"Good point. Yeah, sure then." The virtual reality game was set up on a large truck. Four seats were lined up on the side, and two cat cornerians were already sitting there with helmets over their heads. Falco and Zero stepped up, and the owner of the machine came up to them.

"Wanna play? It'll be twenty credits."

"Here, I'll pay for both of us." Falco said. The owner held out an electronic board, and Falco slipped a card through it.

"Sit right here. Instructions on how to play come up when you start." Zero sat in the chair and the helmet was placed over his head.

Zero found himself in complete darkness, then white lettering popped up in front of him, with an ominous voice reading the words.

"War is being waged against several nations on the planet Earth. These nations have joined forces, forming two groups known as the Allies and the Axis. You are fighting on the side of the Allies, and you must defeat your opponents on the Axis side. You fight with a gun, and start with 100 HP. Be the last one standing, and you win." The blackness then began to fade, and he found himself in a city. It must have already been attacked, as there was a lot of rubble on the streets from destroyed buildings. A gun was in Zero's hand, and he looked it over.

"Hmm, a gun that fires small metal objects through the use of small explosions. Primitive weapon." Zero walked over to one of the buildings he was next to. There was a broken window, and he managed to get a look at himself from the reflection. He was wearing a green uniform, and he had flesh.

"So, I'm playing as a human? Interesting." Zero jumped up to the wall of the building. He figured if he jumped up the wall, he could get on top and get a better view; however, when he kicked off the wall, he was falling back to the ground. Zero fell flat on his back and on to the shattered glass. He saw that seven points were taken off of his life bar.

"Right, my abilities are determined by the game, and humans can't wall jump." As he got up, he noticed another soldier with a different uniform down the street with a gun pointed at him.

"Zero?"

"Falco?" Zero asked back. It was obvious that this other soldier was Falco. They both stood there with their guns pointed at each other. At this range, either one of them could make a kill shot, so instead they darted off in opposite directions.

Zero then stopped, making his feet slide, and kicking up dust as he did. He took aim and fired, but Falco then leaped behind a building. Doing the same, Zero ran backwards towards a pillar that held up a building. Falco then popped his head out from the building and fired, but Zero took cover behind the post.

"This is going nowhere." Zero thought. He then retreated back into a nearby alley. "I might have the strength of a human in here, but I still have the same skill." The alley was small, with two tall buildings on either side. He jumped towards one, and kicking off it, he jumped off the other building, and thus he was able to get himself up by wall kicking off each other.

When Zero got to the top, he couldn't spot Falco, but suddenly a bullet ricocheted off the ledge of the roof. Zero looked over the edge, but he didn't see him, but soon he saw something move near a pile of rubble, and Zero shot away.

Bullets were going through some of the rubble, so he had to retreat. As he did though, a bullet scraped his left shoulder, and he was down to seventy HP.

"If he can do it, then so can I." Falco thought to himself. He too came up to an alley with two close buildings and jumped up. Once he was up there, he could spot Zero behind a cooling unit on a building across the street. He fired at him, and Zero then bolted off again. Falco followed, and they began shooting at each other while running and jumping across the adjacent buildings.

Their weapons didn't have the greatest of aim, but they figured that sooner or later one of them would get shot. As Falco jumped to another building, he tripped over the ledge, and fell flat on his face on the other building.

Seeing his chance, Zero was going to go for the kill. A power line ran from the building he was on to the one that Falco stood on, and since the one Falco stood on was shorter than building Zero stood on, the power line sloped down. Zero grabbed the line with one hand and slid down to where Falco fell. Just before he got up, Falco had a gun pointed at his head.

"Game over." Zero said with a smile. Just then a shot was fired, and Zero found himself in darkness again, and Falco did later. The dreaded words "Game Over" flashed before them.

Zero took the helmet off of his head, and saw that Falco then took his off. Zero then noticed that the two cat cornerians still had their helmets on. A few moments later, they both took them off.

"Ha ha, I win!" The taller one said.

"Good game!" The shorter one said

"Man, you guys didn't see us coming!"

"So, you two snuck up and shot us?" Zero asked.

"Yeah. You were doing really good, but it was such a perfect opportunity to take both of you out."

"Well, looks like neither of us won, Zero." Falco said.


	15. Chapter 8: Zox Armada Part 3

"So you're the new Arwing Pilot?" Samus asked Krystal. The two were strolling along the festival amongst the crowds.

"Yes. When Peppy retired as a pilot, his Arwing was just sitting in the hanger, so Fox showed me how to pilot it. I've gotten pretty good at it. I'm even thinking about participating in the next Super Smash Bros. Tournament."

"Sounds great. Might be nice facing against you. Last I heard you were just someone who was tagging along with Starfox, now you're a full-fledged member."

"Heh, thanks." Suddenly, a Cheetah cornerian walked up towards Krystal.

"Hey foxy lady, how's it goin'?"

"Eh, please." Krystal brushed him off and just kept walking. When they were away from him, Krystal asked in an annoyed tone,

"Why do guys always have to use that lame pick-up line?"

"Well, you _are_ a fox." Samus said straight out.

"Still."

"Hey you, human girl!" A dog cornerian shouted, who was running a strength tester. Samus became quite angry at his rudeness.

"What you say?" Samus said with an angry tone.

"Come here and try it out, free of charge!" He said mockingly. He found humans to be not that strong, and wanted to humiliate her by showing people how weak she would be. Samus walked over and glared him in the eyes, and then grabbed the large hammer from him. With a single swing, she hit the lever, making the weight shoot upward. Instead of the weight just hitting the bell at the top, which was far from what he expected, the weight crashed through the bell, and the weight kept flying upwards.

Samus handed back the hammer as the weight fell back down, crashing into the strength tester. She then looked him straight in the eyes again, saying,

"And my name isn't _hey you human girl_, it's Samus." The cornarian stood there dumbfounded as they walked away.

"Samus? Why does that name sound familiar...? Erk! S-S-Samus Aran, the b-bounty hunter? I just mocked the bounty h-hunter Samus A-Aran, and I'm still, and I'm still...." He didn't manage to finish talking, as he fainted, falling backwards onto the ground.

"...and we couldn't find our way out of the cave, so after making some adjustments to the tracker, we found our way out." Slippy said to Sonic. They were walking down the aisles looking for something interesting.

"Heh, you kind of remind me of Tails. He's always messing with technology and stuff. You two would probably get along great." As Sonic said that, he then remembered that Tails was still on Nintendo when it was attacked. He began to feel depressed as he wondered if he was alive or not, but Slippy broke his train of thought when he said,

"Ash? D.K?" They saw Ash and D.K. behind of a booth cooking up and serving dishes.

"Hey, what are you guys doing there?" Sonic asked.

"Eh, well, you see, we kind of ate some food without realizing we had to pay for it." Ash said embarrassingly. "So now, we have to pay it off by working. It's not bad really, this is actually kind of fun!"

"Speak for yourself! I hate cooking!"

"Oh, come on D.K, it's not that bad!"

"Hey, you two get back to work!"

"Well, I guess we better let you finish."

"Yeah, see you later."

As Link, Mario and Fox walked in the crowd, they came to a sign-up table. Just behind it was a field with a track and many obstacles.

"Hey guys, you want to participate in the events?" Fox asked.

"Event?"

"Yeah, during the festival, they hold different events, like the stone toss, mile run, and obstacle course."

"Sure, sounds interesting." Link said.

"Yeah, all right." They walked up to the sign-up table, where a lizard cornerian was writing some stuff on a notebook.

"We'd like to sign up" The man looked up and saw the three people.

"Well, it just happens that we have three spots left in the obstacle course. Want to join?"

"Sure."

"Okay, just give me your names, please."

"James."

"Mario."

"Link." He causally wrote the names down on the notebook, but then slowed down when he began to realize something.

"Wait, you wouldn't happen to be _thee_ Mario and Link, would you?"

"Um, well, yes." Mario said, unsure of whether it was a good thing.

"Wow, that's awesome! It will be great to see you guys in action. Just go over there and get ready. The race starts in twenty minutes." As they headed in the direction he pointed, the man stopped them.

"Wait, hold on a moment. James, was it? You look familiar. Have I seen you somewhere before?"

"What? Oh, you must have me confused with someone else. Bye!" They went to a grass field that was just a few several feet from a racetrack. It was just a simple dirt track with white lines, but there were plenty of obstacles on the path. It went straight down for quite a few yards, and then sharply turned around, heading back in the same direction, where the course turned back around to the starting point. They figured this was the place as there were twelve other people standing there. Combined, they were the fifteen people who would compete in the obstacle course.

When it came time to start, several people had gathered on a bench to watch. There was a tall pole with a loudspeaker on top, and just below it a person on a tall stand. He spoke into the microphone and the loudspeaker amplified his voice.

"Everyone, welcome to the seventh New Year's festival obstacle course race!" Some applause was made from the audience. "Racers, take your positions." Everyone went to the beginning of the track, each on their own path marked by the parallel white lines.

Mario looked at the competition and saw that they were mostly average built cornerians, all of different races. One, however, stood out from the rest. He was a short little guy ) with blue and white clothing. The only apparent skin was seen on his face, but yet the only things on his face were his eyes. He had small, round pink balls for hands and feet, as well as one on the antenna on top of his head.

"The racers will run across this track and get through the many obstacles you see ahead. The first person to complete one lap is the victor, so without anymore, let the race begin."

"Good luck, Mario."

"Three...."

"You too, Link."

"Two...."

"You as well, Fox." Link said.

"One...."

"Thanks, but it's you who's going to need it." Fox said as he grinned.

"Go!" The audience cheered and the racers bolted off.

Mario was a good runner, but Link was faster, and Fox even faster than Link. It was clear from the start that they were the fastest, as they left everyone else in the dust. This would be a race between them.

The first obstacle they came to was a pit of sand. Running in that would decrease their speed, so they jumped over it. Fox and Link jumped, but they landed a few feet short. Mario, however, was able to jump clear across the sand. Mario was now ahead, but Link and Fox were catching up.

The next obstacle was a wooden wall, with ropes on it for people to climb up. Again, Mario had the advantage, being able to jump right over it. Link managed to get ahead of Fox at this point, and was running after Mario.

They then came to a long stretch of wire close to the ground. The way to get past this would be to lie on the ground and crawl. Mario was ahead, but Link proved to be better at crawling than Mario. In this obstacle, Link was able to get ahead of Mario, with Fox close behind.

Next, Link came to a part where the track was covered in some sort of gunk. Link continued running, but once he stepped on the gunk, he slipped and fell flat on his face. This gunk was very slippery and could not be simply run on.

Mario saw what happened to Link, so Mario did a small jump and let his feet slide across the gunk like ice. Link did a back flip on to the clear ground, and then did the same as Mario.

Fox was catching up quite fast, and when he got to the slippery gunk, he did the same, but he gained much more momentum than did Mario or Link.

They had reached the halfway point, as the course turned around and went back in the other direction. People were cheering throughout the race, and the person at the loudspeaker was telling the positions of the racers. Fox was now ahead, and they came up to a part where there was more gunk on the track, but this time a row of ropes were hung across it for people to hold on to. Fox grabbed hold of the rope and used his hands to get across.

As Mario came up to it, he jumped on to it to slide across, but this time, his feet just stuck to it. Link saw Mario's error, so he too grabbed hold of the rope. The gunk was hard to get out of, but he managed to jump out and grab the rope.

Fox was ahead with Link in second and Mario in third. Now, they came to the final and most challenging obstacle: a maze. There were wooden boards set up, making the walls nine feet tall, encompassing a good deal of the track. Each person's row lead into it's own entrance, so they all went in alone.

As Link went in, he took the straight path, ignoring two adjacent paths he past on his left and right. Link had experience with places like these, and ran in and out of passages. He could hear the footsteps of Mario and Fox, but to how close they were to the exit he couldn't tell.

After almost a minute, Link found his way out of the maze, and to his surprise, Mario was already ahead, and Fox came out not too long after link.

"James has exited the maze, and now it's a straight-out run between these three amazing people. James is picking up speed and Link is catching up to Mario. They're turning around the corner now, and boy will this be close!"

As they turned around the corner, Fox managed to get ahead of Link. Mario was in the lead, but he could hear Fox quickly coming up from behind. He could see the finish line just ahead, but now he was starting to hear the footsteps of Link.

The finish line was just seconds away, but now Fox was right to the right of him. If he continued running, Fox would pass him up, so instead he put his jumping power to use. Leaning his body forward, Mario pushed off with his legs, rocketing forward.

Fox was putting all his effort into his legs, and could merely watch as Mario jumped ahead of him, crossing the finish line. Mario put his hands out as he fell towards the floor, pushing himself off the floor with his hands and front flipping forward, safely putting his feet on to the ground. Fox crossed the finish line a fraction of a second after Mario, and Link dashed across a second later.

The three stopped in their tracks and caught their breath, heavily panting. Everyone cheered as the man at the loudspeaker shouted the winner's name.

"Ha ha...well done...Mario."

"Thanks Fox."

"Heh, that was...a good race." Link said. It had been a while since they had fun. Their thoughts had been towards the Zox ever since they became involved in the battle, but none of them thought of that now. For the time being, they were happy, enjoying life.

As the rest of the racers crossed the finish line, a beeping sound came from Fox's communicator. Fox pulled out the communicator from his pocket, put it up to his ear and pressed a button.

"Zox mother ship approaching your location." ROB said in his monotone voice.

"What? Now? Mario, the Zox are coming!" Mario and Link's faces turned back to their serious expressions, and then bolted back to the 64. As they ran, Mario pulled out the radio Zero gave them back on Tallon IV.

"Everyone, the Zox are coming, get back to the 64!" As they left the track, Mario heard the announcer say something about coming back and getting his prize, but there was no time.


	16. Chapter 9: Game Over Part 1

**Chapter 9**

**Game Over**

"All right, that'll do." The owner of the stand said. Ash and D.K. took off their aprons and sighed.

"Great, now we can get back to the carnival!" Ash said. Just then, both Ash and D.K.'s radios went off.

"Everyone, the Zox are coming, get back to the 64!" Without wasting any time, they both jumped over the counter and ran towards their ship. People had to jump out of the way as they ran.

"Hey wait, what's the rush? And what's a Zox?"

Fox, Link and Mario rushed down the field of parked spacecrafts, running even faster than they did back on the obstacle course. Fox then held up his communicator as they ran.

"You guys get to the 64 and get ready, we'll head to our Arwings and slow the mother ship down. I imagine we can reach it before you do. You guys got that?"

"Yes." The rest of the Starfox team said through the communicator.

"All right, good luck Fox." Fox then separated from them and went his own way. Mario and Link then came to the Nintendo 64, and the door automatically opened up. Mario didn't know how the door opened up by itself when one of them just stood there, or how it would only open for those who have already been in the ship and recognized them, but he didn't care for the moment.

Mario and Link ran to the control room and Mario started up the ship. Link went to his console to be ready for the attack.

Fox pressed a button on a remote as he ran and the hatch to his Arwing opened up. Fox jumped right in and closed the hatch, and began lifting off. Once he was a few feet off the ground, he could see the others getting in their ships.

As the four left the atmosphere of Corneria, the blue sky turned to the blackness of space, dotted with white spots of stars.

"Listen up, I don't know if we can take him on alone, but we need to at least keep him from entering Corneria, got it?"

"No sweat Fox! It's just one ship, we can do this!" As they flew towards the Zox mother ship, a screen of Karlnak popped up on their ships.

"What, a barricade of four ships?" Karlnak mocked. "Try if you want, you're not getting the best of me this time!"

One by one, the rest of the team ran into the control room, all except for Samus Aran.

"Hey, where's Samus?"

"She came in, but she went the other way down the hall." Sonic said. Just then, Samus walked into the room with her suit on.

"We're all here, let's go." Samus said, and the 64 began to lift off. Fox then appeared on the main screen.

"Guys, we're having trouble...." Fox paused in his talking as his ship was rocked from a laser blast "Eh, keeping him off."

"Mario, the mother ship is nearing Corneria's atmosphere!" Sonic said.

"Link, we're going to need that robot form."

"On it." As the ship began to transform into its powerful robot form, Karlnak came up on the video screen.

"You have humiliated me, warriors of dimension N." Karlnak was furious, yet he was restraining his anger with determination. "I thought I could just go ahead and take over planets as I travel this dimension, but no, you always had to be there to stop us! You have destroyed an entire Zox armada, a task no other opponent has done. For this, you will pay dearly."

"You may have conquered several dimensions, but you're not taking this one!" Link said. The ship was several miles above the ground as it completed its transformation, and just as they were ready, the mother ship came into view, like an object coming out of the mist.

The Zox ship was heading straight towards them ) at incredible speed. Fire surrounded the ship as it as it was heating up from entering the atmosphere, but its armor was strong enough to resist such entry.

"I've fully repaired and redone this ship since our last battle, you don't stand a chance. I didn't take you seriously before, but now, there's no holding back, no retreating. Your heads our mine!"

The arms of the ship were stretched out, ready to strike. The heroes braced their selves as the 64 grabbed the mother ship. The force from the impact of the two ships colliding arm-to-arm was so great that the noise could be heard from the ground several miles away, sending a chill of fear to all who heard. Mario tried to push Karlnak back, but he was moving so fast that they were being pushed back. They held onto the Zox, but they were still pummeling to the ground.

"What's that up in the sky? Is it a bird, a plane?"

"No, that's the ships that attacked yesterday!" People on the ground scattered as the two powerful ships came falling to the ground. As the 64 hit the ground, its feet dug into the soil, sliding across the field as they slowed down. Where grassy fields once were, there were now two large gullies.

As they came to a stop, the two forces stood in a deadlock, trying to push each other down. Getting the upper hand, Mario lifted the Zox over them. As Karlnak was thrown back, his ship was quickly rebalanced. The Zox ship then fired several lasers at the 64 from its hands.

Finding a new move, Zero activated energy shields on the palms of the 64's hands, and used them to knock back the lasers. As the laser shots hit the shields, they were reflected, and went in all directions, some colliding into the ground where the people were.

"Mario, we need to move this fight into space, or too many people are going to get hurt down there!" Link shouted.

"I know, I'm trying!" Zero stopped using the shields since it was too dangerous, and the 64 used its jets to fly backwards.

The mother ship took pursuit of the 64, clasping its hands together, charging a laser. The Zox paused for a moment, and then fired a large laser beam at the 64. Mario dashed to the left, and the beam missed the main body by only twenty feet.

Since the mother ship had to stop for a moment to fire the beam, Mario took this to their advantage. Mario dashed towards the Zox ship, and when he came into range, kicked the bottom of the ship. The force sent the ship flying upwards, and continuing their assault, the 64 blasted upwards, pursuing the Zox. Mario was going to smash the ship again, making sure it gets sent into space. When they got close though, Karlnak put the ship's hands together and made one mighty blow to the 64, knocking it right in the head.

The head was where the control room was, and when they were hit, everyone in the room was tossed from their seats. A horribly loud crash was made when they were hit, and a dip could be seen in the roof of the control room. The 64 was sent crashing to the ground, and with Mario knocked off his seat, he couldn't stop their fall.

The ship crashed into the ground flat on its back, right where some of the ships were parked. The 64 crushed some of the ships, and even some people who were trying to escape. A crater was formed from the impact, and dirt flew everywhere. Everyone in the ship then got back on their feet.

"Man, why doesn't this ship have seat belts?" D.K. asked.

"Is everyone okay?" Zero asked, looking around the room.

"Looks like it." Samus said, taking a scan of everyone from her suit. As Mario got back up and sat in the chair, he looked at the main screen, and became quite worried.

Above them was the mother ship, once again charging a laser blast in between its hands. Karlnak had it aimed right at them, and was about to fire. Mario scrambled with the controls to get the 64 moving and out of the way.

"Good bye, pests!" Karlnak shouted, even though there was no communication link with the 64. Just then, his ship was hit in the back by a powerful explosion. The mother ship's hands were knocked out of position and the charging ball of energy vanished.

"What happened?" Karlnak questioned. As he did, four Arwings flew past his ship on the view screen. The mother ship was hit in the back by four simultaneous nova bombs. The four ships flew around the Zox, firing at all parts, so the Zox then began swatting at the Awrings like flies.

"Now's my chance." Mario said to himself. Mario once again had their ship blast up towards their enemy. Shooting off like a rocket, they zoomed towards the preoccupied Zox. The 64 clenched its metal fists, holding its arms to its sides.

As the Zox were trying to whack down its pesky enemies, they then noticed that the 64 was right under them, but they noticed too late. The 64 launched its fists into the underside of the mother ship, sending them flying upwards. The people inside the mother ship struggled to stand up as the force of their speed was keeping them stuck to the floor.

It wasn't long before the Zox found their selves back in outer space, and the 64 flying up to greet them.

"So, that's how you want to do this, eh? Fine by me. Whether I kill you here or on the planet doesn't matter, but just since you're so eager to keep those people down there alive, they'll be the first ones I kill when the only thing standing in my way is gone."

"I wouldn't count on that, Karlnak." Mario said with confidence. "Now that you're up here away from the people," Mario paused as the 64 took a battle stance. "We won't hold back )." The 64 then held its hands out and began firing multiple, rapid shots at the Zox. Countless laser blasts flew everywhere, and it was impossible for them to avoid it. The mother ship shook as laser after laser hit the main body of the ship.

"What are you doing, idiot? Deploy the shield already!" Karlnak yelled. The Zox ship's arms crisscrossed with the hands pointed out, and a large energy shield formed at the front of the ship.

"Heh heh, you're not the only one with a shield, and ours is bigger." As Karlnak boasted, the 64 charged towards them. With the mother ship's arms in that position, they couldn't retaliate, so they let down their shield so they can attack. They then realized their mistake. Just as they let down their shield, the 64 grabbed hold of the Zox's hands. With the mother ship in their grasp, the 64 lunged both its knees into the mother ship while still holding onto. A large dent was put into the bottom of the mother ship. Taking yet another strike, the 64 let go delivered a blow to the top of the Zox ship, sending it fly below them.

At this point, the Starfox team had made it back to the action, but when they saw what kind of battle was going on, they wondered if they should really join in.

"Fox, look at that." Krystal said, amazed at the power between the two ships. "Should we really try to help them?"

"I don't know. I think we might just get in their way. We were able to help them back with that armada, but this is a one-on-one battle."

The Zox ship had received a great deal of damage, and they were flying away from the 64. Karlnak saw that this was a good opportunity to use their new weapon they installed. Two panels on the sides of the mother ship opened up, and large missiles rocketed out from them.

"Mario, two missiles are coming towards us!" Sonic warned. Mario held his ground, expecting Zero to activate the shields.

"Mario, what are you doing? Our energy shields are good against lasers, not physical explosions!" Mario's confidence quickly faded as the 64 turned tail and ran. Mario hoped to escape the missiles' path, but to his surprise, the missiles were following his every move.

As the 64 was trying to outrun the missiles, Zero began firing at them, hoping to destroy them. Their followers were quite fast, and Zero was having trouble getting a direct shot at them. Even though the 64 was moving as fast as it could, the missiles were still catching up. As Zero fired laser after laser, he finally managed to hit one. As he hit it, the missile exploded. The explosion was massive, as it was three times the size of the 64.

To everyone's horror, the other missile was still intact, and only three CDs length from them. Zero's robotic mind was racing as distance and speed equations ran through his mind, trying to get the laser to hit the missile. If he was human, sweat would have run down his face. As the missile came closer, Zero found it more and more pointless to try, because if he hit it at this distance, the explosion would have greatly injured them anyways. They tried to escape the missile's danger, but they could only hold their breath as it came in contact with the 64.

"Ha ha! I've done it! I've done it! I've destroyed the warriors of dimensions N!" Karlnak laughed and rejoiced while the Zox controlling the ship grumbled that he took all the credit. As the explosion faded, he could see that the 64 was still in one piece, to say the least.

The lights inside the control room came back on as the repair robot moved about fixing broken objects. Mario stood back up on his feat and saw that they were still alive, though Ash and Sonic were unconscious.

"Mario, the 64's armor is down to nine percent. There's five hull breaches, but emergency locks have stopped the air from leaking." Link said as he observed his console's screen. Mario looked up at the main screen, and could see that the Zox were heading towards them for one final blow.

"If they hit us one more time, we're done for." Samus said grimly.

"We're not going to give up. It looks grim, but we always pull through." Mario said, though his voice showed that he was worried. Zero moved his hands over the control panel, and could see that the arms were still working. Mario tried moving the 64, but nothing happened. It looked like their propulsion system was out of order.

"It's coming." Samus said. The Zox were flying towards them with both arms stretched out, fists ready to slam. "What can we do?" Everyone became more tense each second as the Zox raced towards them. Zero was moving his hands around the control board and Mario futilely moved the steering controls.

"Ha ha ha ha, look at them! They're sitting ducks! Just as it always has been, and always will be, the Zox shall conquer anything in its path!" As Zero brought his arms together, facing the top of his arms downward and then clenching his fists, a ball of energy formed in each of the 64's hands. When they reached to the size of the 64's palms, it then clenched its fists, and the balls of energy erupted out from the sides of the hands like bolts of lightning, and took the shape of swords.

In each hand, the 64 held a blade of yellow energy. The swords glowed and flashed, not completely holding a constant shape. The blades were not smooth and defined, but the edges were more like that of lightning.

The Zox noticed this new development, but they had already reached the 64, and it was too late turn away. The mother ship tilted upwards to fly right over the 64 instead of ramming it. As it passed them, the 64 took the energy swords and sliced at the sides of the mother ship. The blades went right through the ship like a knife through butter, and sliced the sides clean off of the mother ship, along with its arms. The mother ship continued on as it saw its arms drift away. Karlnak screamed in furry.

"Argh! You imbeciles! How could you have let this happen?"

"Oh sure, take all the credit and blame everything on us." A Zox pilot grumbled to himself. As they tried to move the ship around, they found that their propulsion unit was partially severed from the attack, and couldn't properly maneuver.

With the danger over, the 64 opened its hands, and the blades vanished.

"We did it, we did it." Mario sighed and then slumped down in the chair to rest from the excitement. His rest was short lived as Karlnak contacted them.

"Well, it seems that now neither of us can move. How about we finish this in a fair fight? Send your strongest warrior to my ship, and we can have a hand-to-hand battle. No tricks." Karlnak said, trying to unsure it wasn't a trap.

"I don't think your in a position to make offers." Zero said. "Unless you haven't noticed, you've lost your arms while we still have ours, and thus our weapons."

"True, but our dimensional drive is still operational. I know a nice black hole I could send you." Karlnak smirked. "You have ten minutes to decide who amongst you is the strongest." Karlnak's communication link then ended.

"Hey, you guys all right? What's going on?" Fox asked.

"We're okay. Come on board and we'll explain. We'll need your help." Once Starfox boarded the ship, they had to take several paths down the halls to reach the control room, as some of the places were blocked off from the hull breaches. When they met up with the others and Ash and Sonic came to, they were caught up on what happened, and began thinking of what action to take.

"Why can't we just _smash_ them while they're waiting?" D.K. said, hitting his fist into his palm to emphasize the word smash.

"That wouldn't work. We may have sliced part of their ship, but they're still in better shape then we are, so if we try to attack them, they'll open a portal before we have a chance to finish them off." Samus said.

"So then...we really have to choose someone?" Link said. Link then firmly said, "I'll go."

"No, I should go." Mario said.

"No, let me!" Sonic said. Everyone began arguing that they should go.

"Hey, quit it!" Ash yelled, getting their attention. "We only have six minutes left, and this isn't helping. It's obvious you all have the courage, but we should think critically at who is the better choice. Here." Ash then pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and ripped it up in several pieces and handed it to everyone. "We'll vote. Um, I only have one pen, so we'll have to take turns." Ash wrote down a name on his paper and then handed it to Link.

"Vote? Well, I suppose this would be the better way. Hey wait, where's Zero? Shouldn't he vote too?" Link said.

"I don't know. After Karlnak's message, he ran down the hall."

"Oh well." After thinking for a bit, he wrote down a name and then passed the pen down. Choosing one person out of all the heroes on the ship wouldn't be a simple task. They had all shown their bravery and skill in more than one occasion, and they all had their unique talents that couldn't really be compared. Whoever was chosen would be the one who had to face off against Karlnak. Once they finished, Ash took all the papers and counted the names. Ash became shocked at the results.

"Wow! I didn't expect this many."

"What? Who is it?"

"All votes go to Mario. Well, except for one that goes to D.K." Everyone then glanced at D.K.

"What?" Turning their attention back to Mario, Mario began to be surprised.

"You...you all think I should go?"

"You might not be the most physically strong of us, but you're the most well-rounded. You've experienced and done many more things than all of us." Samus said.

"You might not have noticed it, but you've been the leader here all along. You're the one who started gathering us together. I'd still be back in Hyrule if it wasn't for you."

"Hey, if someone's gonna take that punk down, it would be you." Sonic said.

"Thanks guys. All right, I'll do it."

"Hold on a moment." Zero said. He walked into the control room holding a small, rectangular object. "Take this with you."

"What is it?"

"A bomb. In case something goes wrong, stick this to something and it will detonate in three minutes."

"So that's what you were doing while we were voting?"

"Oh wait, one more thing!" Ash said. He then took something out of his pocket wrapped in a handkerchief. "I don't know what it is, but maybe it will come in handy." Mario was about to look at what it was, but then Fox told him to come.

"Mario, we only have two minutes!"

"Right." Mario and Fox then ran to the docking bay. Since the 64 didn't have any smaller ships in the docking bay, Fox had to fly Mario to the mother ship. As Fox got in the ship, Mario had to sit on top of him.

"Eh, this is rather cramp."

"Sorry Mario, but this was built for only one person." The bottom door opened up and the Arwing flew out. They flew towards a spot on the bottom of the mother ship where a door was opening to welcome them in.

Inside the enemy ship, they could see that it wasn't too different from the 64. The hanger was just a little larger than the 64's.

"I'll wait here for when you come back. God luck!" Mario gave a thumps up to Fox and walked on.


	17. Chapter 9: Game Over Part 2

When he came to the door of the hanger, it automatically opened up, and Mario stepped inside. Inside was a long hallway with a few doors, and up ahead it turned to the left and right.

"Welcome warrior. You're late. I almost gave up on you." The voice of Karlnak echoed in the hallway, apparently from a speaker somewhere. "Our sensors show that you have entered our ship, now continue on and take the path to the left." Mario did as he was instructed. As he came to the corner, he turned left, and saw the hallway continue on.

"Why is this place so empty?" Mario thought to himself.

"You'll then need to take a right." Mario went on, and when he turned around the corner, he was in another hallway, but this time there was a large purple door up ahead on the right side.

"You see that purple door? I'm waiting inside." Karlnak snickered. As he stepped up to it, he could see words on it written in the Zox language, which he of course couldn't read. The door slid open, and he then found out where the ship's crew was. Mario came to a large, spacious room. It was as long as a football field, and just as wide. The ceiling rose to about thirty feet tall, and all alongside the walls were glass windows where all the Zox watched. In the middle of the room was Karlnak, waiting for Mario.

"Of all the warriors, they send Mario? I was thinking they might have sent Link or Samus, but either way, you'll do just fine."

"So what's going on here?" Mario asked in all seriousness, a tone that Mario doesn't often use.

"It's your final battle, Mario. My crew has come to watch your death, and just for the memories, I'm recording the whole thing. To be honest with you, I've never been one for all this high-tech stuff; I'd _much_ rather pound my enemies into the ground with my own two hands." Karlnak said as he cracked his fingers.

"A hand-to-hand battle?" Mario asked, thinking about the idea.

"Yes, and you can be allowed to use any means necessary to win." Mario was surprised that Karlnak would let him use anything he wanted.

"Don't look so surprised, Mario. You'll need all the help you can get. Not only am I the War Master, but I am also the strongest warrior of all the Zox. My people have learned the right way to exercise, and bring out the full potential of a warrior." Mario looked Karlnak over, and could see he wasn't exaggerating. He was three times the size of Mario, and a few inches taller than all the other Zox on the ship. His body looked like it was all muscle; his arms and legs bulged from the size of them.

"Trentin, activate the program!" Karlnak shouted. The room then began to change. Like a mirage, the room became a desert. The sky above them was orange, and the ground was a brownish-orange, with scattered rocks and pebbles, and large boulders were sparsely spread around. The terrain was quite flat, and no change in elevation could be seen for miles. The sun above them was bright, and he could feel its rays burning at his skin.

"This is our holographic training room, and this is the desert Karlnak, on my home planet Compet." Mario was again a little surprised, as either Karlnak was so popular a desert is named after him, or he was named after the desert.

"As you might have guessed, I was named after this desert. In my language, Karlnak means _harsh and unforgiving_. Like this desert, I will be _harsh_, and _unforgiving_."

"What a name for your mother to give you." Mario teased.

"We'll see how long you can keep up that attitude of yours." Mario then rushed towards Karlnak as he faced the final boss ). Karlnak just stood there, so Mario jumped over him, and as he tried to pound his feet into his head, Karlnak put his arms up, and as Mario jumped off, Karlnak pushed Mario up, making him fly up. As he flew towards the sky, he stopped in mid-air, hitting the invisible ceiling of the room. As Mario fell back to the ground, he couldn't do anything but watch Karlnak get ready to attack. As Mario came back to the ground, Karlnak slammed his fist into Mario's stomach, sending him crashing into the ground.

Karlnak wasn't finished, as he came up to Mario to slam his fist down at him. Mario quickly rolled to the side as Karlnak's fist crashed into the ground. Mario got back up and delivered a three-hit-combo, striking twice with his fists and once with his foot. Karlnak was knocked back a bit, but as Mario came at him to strike again, Karlnak grabbed him, and swung him around before throwing him into the invisible wall of the room. Shouts could be heard from the Zox watching their fight.

Though Mario was in pain, his determination was unshaken. Reaching into his pocket, he took out a feather, and unlocking its power, a cape appeared on his back. Karlnak ran towards him, so he did the same. As they approached each other, Mario jumped forward with his arms out. Using the power of the cape, he flew right into Karlnak's chest, and was then flying around the room. Karlnak got back up from Mario's attack, but Mario was then making a dive bomb for him. Karlnak was caught off guard as the bright sun blinded him from seeing Mario. Mario dived and slammed into him with such force that Karlnak was again knocked to the floor.

Mario got on his feet the moment he landed to prevent himself from getting harmed, running forward to slow down from the momentum. Mario looked back at Karlnak and could see a fury in his eyes. Mario began spinning in circles, his cape stretching out and knocking anything it touches. Like a spinning top, Mario raced towards Karlnak. Loose dirt spun away from Mario as his speed created a minute cyclone. Unfortunately for Mario, Karlnak easily saw the weak spot with this attack. Making a sweeping kick, Karlnak hit Mario's legs before the cap touched him, making Mario trip.

As the plumber tripped over, Karlnak grabbed him by the cape, and he became a punching bag. Karlnak stroke Mario with several powerful blows before he swung him around and threw him to the wall. Mario slowly got back to his feet.

"Still fighting? You're quite persistent." Mario was feeling weaker, but he charged towards him anyways. Mario jumped towards Karlnak to try pounding his face with both fists. Just as he was about to smash his face in, Karlnak grabbed both of his arms. Mario was at the hands of Karlnak, so instead he used his feet to kick him in the chest. As he did though, two hands stopped his feet. Mario was shocked to see that four pairs of arms were coming from Karlnak, both holding Mario's legs and arms.

"When I said _with my own two hands_, I may have lied."

"Exercise, you say?" Mario teased.

"Well, genetic engineering always helps." Karlnak snickered. With all four hands, Karlnak slammed Mario into the ground, and began pounding him. His arms repeatedly slammed down on him like lightning, each one sending vibrations through the ground. Mario was pinned to the floor, and took every hit. He could feel his bones breaking, and some parts of his body were actually going numb. Dirt was kicked up and formed a cloud of dust. With the damage he received, Mario lost his power, and the cape vanished.

Karlnak figured it was enough, so he picked Mario up by the head.

"Had enough, Mario?" Mario didn't respond, as his eyes were barely open. His body was covered in sweat, blood, and dirt, with bruises all over. "No? Well, let's take care of that." Taking one last swing, Karlnak smacked the battered plumber, sending him into the wall one last time. Since Karlnak could see that this battle was over, he put his extra pair of arms back in his body.

Mario hit the invisible wall, and fell on his back into the ground. As he hit the ground, something fell out of his pocket. Mario struggled to turn his head and look to see what it was. Right next to him laid the handkerchief, and right beside it was a starman. Mario didn't know how Ash came across one out here, but Ash had given him a starman nonetheless. Mario then tried to reach his arm out to grab it.

"Still alive? It's amazing how much stamina you have." Karlnak started running towards him to finish him off. Mario could hear Karlnak's footsteps getting closer and closer, and Mario struggled to get the star. His arm was in more pain then he could ever remember it, and the star was just an inch out of his reach. Karlnak was getting closer, so Mario ignored the horrible pain and lunged for the star.

Karlnak raised both his hands and slammed down on Mario. The blow made the ground shake, and would have easily finished him off, but instead it felt like he had tried hitting the hardest element in the dimension. As Karlnak stepped back, he saw that Mario was glittering all over, and his body was flashing from some sort of light.

With the starman's invincible power, Mario no longer felt pain, and immediately stood up. Karlnak again hit him, but Mario didn't even move from the impact. Taking the offensive, Mario did several three-hit combos before doing a jumping uppercut, right into his chin. As Mario hit him, a few coins fell out of his pocket. The blow sent him flying up, so Mario reached into his pocket to take out another fire flower.

As Karlnak was falling back down, Mario began spinning around in circles again, but this time, he fired off some fireballs. With his continual spinning, the fireballs were caught up in a whirlwind, and a tornado of flame encompassed him. Karlnak fell right into the flaming tornado, and was caught in it for several seconds as Mario also hit him with his twirling fists.

Mario could feel that the power of invincibility was starting to wear off, so he stopped his attack. Karlnak was sent flying as he finished, and was sent right into a large boulder, hitting the back of his head. The star's power wore off, and Mario could feel the pain again, but he felt rejuvenated enough to walk.

Mario walked over to Karlnak, who was still lying there; his body was covered in burns. As he stepped up to him, the hologram turned off, and they were back in the metal room. Even the dirt on his body was gone. Faint words were then heard from Karlnak.

"Eh...you win."

"You admit defeat?"

"Yes." Karlnak weakly said. He was breathing quite heavily.

"So this war of yours against this dimension is over?"

"Yes. Please, just don't kill me." Mario was a surprised to hear such a different tone from Karlnak. He was a ruthless killer, but now he was pleading for his life.

"If I spare you, will you promise to never return, and stop this silly conquest of yours?"

"Ye...y...yes. I promise."

"Good." Without saying another word, Mario walked out. He walked down the halls and back towards Fox. Mario then remembered about the bomb, and took it out.

"Heh, I guess I won't need this after all." Mario thought to himself. "They may be killers of dimensions, but I can't just kill them. He promised me he wouldn't come back, and whether he keeps his word or not, I know I have to give him the chance. Everyone deserves a second chance." Mario put the bomb back in his pocket, but then he started hearing voices.

"Sir, or you all right?"

"Argh, I'll live, just don't touch me. Ow! I said don't touch me, that hurts!"

"Sir, are you crying?" A laser shot was then heard. Mario then remembered that Karlnak used a speaker to tell him where to go, so they must have forgot to turn it off.

"Sir, what do we do now?"

"Have our engines been fixed yet?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then let's go home."

"But sir, what about Mario and the others."

"Forget about them! Going after them now would be suicide. We'll return home, then gather every single ship there is, even from all our other dimensions, and came back to finish them off." Mario had hoped that Karlnak would keep his promise, but he just heard him break that promise.

"But sir, didn't you promise Mario we wouldn't return?"

"Promise? What promise? I never made any promise. Did you here me make any promise."

"Yes sir, you did just...." Another laser shot was heard.

"Anyone else heard me make a promise?"

"Oh, no sir, not at all."

"Good. They won't be expecting us to come back, and that will give us the surprise advantage." Mario took the bomb back out of his pocket, took a look at it, and then stuck it to the wall. It began counting down from three minutes.

Mario got back to the hanger and hoped in the Arwing.

"Hey, you all right? What happened back there?" Fox asked.

"No time, just go!" The hanger door opened up, and Fox flew out. As they flew away from the mother ship, they could see them opening up a dimensional portal. The ship was still greatly damaged, so it slowly entered the portal.

When Karlnak finally had the strength to stand up, he noticed a red light on.

"What's that...? You idiot, you forgot to turn off the speaker! Mario heard everything; turn back now!"

"It's too late sir, we've already entered the portal."

"Sir, we just discovered that someone set us up the bomb!"

By the time they got back onto the ship and into the control room, they could see that the mother ship had fully entered the portal, and it was now closing. Just before the portal fully closed, however, an explosion bursting out of it. The portal closed, and the Zox were gone.

Mario hadn't said anything when he got back, and when they saw the explosion, they were confused at why he set the bomb.

"Mario, if you won, why'd you kill them anyways?"

"Because...because...." Mario wasn't able to finish speaking as he collapsed from exhaustion.

They took Mario to a bed to let him rest, while Link used some healing potions on him. Mario stayed asleep for almost a day, and since he was the one who piloted the Nintendo 64, they didn't go anywhere. When Mario finally woke up, he told them what happened. Destroying the whole ship seemed a bit much, but since he broke his promise and said he would return, it looked like the only choice. With the War Master Karlnak and the mother ship gone, the Dimensional War was finally over. After eating a large breakfast, they all gathered in the control room. Link looked at his console and saw that the robot spiders had fixed most of the ship.

"Mario, the 64 is fixed enough to be put back in ship mode, and our engines are fully repaired."

"Good, put us in ship mode then. Sonic, did you figure out how long it will be?"

"Yeah. At maximum speed, it will take about five days to get back to Nintendo." Mario sighed, as it would be a while till they got back home.

"It's a shame this ship doesn't have a dimensional drive." As Samus said that, some of the unreadable words on one of the consoles turned into English, and said 'Dimensional Drive.' "You're kidding me." Ash then walked up to the console and sat down at it.

"We never knew what this computer did, but I guess now we do."

"We now figure this out? Seesh." D.K. said. Ash then took hold of the mouse at the console and began messing around with the dimensional drive.

"Hey, do you know what you're doing?" Link said, warning Ash not to mess with it.

"Hey, don't worry, this is simple. See here? At the top you select either dimensional portal or slip portal. I'll just click on slip, and...." Once Ash clicked on it, a three-dimensional map of outer space popped up on the screen, and Ash navigated it until he found Nintendo. "Hey, here's Nintendo! If I click here, then the portal will take us there!"

"Hey, hold on Ash, aren't you getting ahead of yourself? Samus and the Starfox team is till on board. That is, unless you want to come with us?"

"You know, we don't really have anything important to do right now. Why not? Hey, you guys want to go?" The rest of Fox's team affirmed him. Fox then took out his communicator.

"ROB, we're going to Nintendo, so follow the 64."

"Affirmative."

"Well, I haven't finished fixing my ship, so I guess I don't really have much of a choice." Samus said.

"All right then. Ash, take us home."

"Sure thing, Mario!" Once Ash clicked on the space near Nintendo, an electric-like energy came out from the four controllers in front of the ship. They joined together at a single spot about a hundred feet away from the 64. As the energy bolts began to separate, it pulled open a hole in space. Once it reached maximum size, the bolts disappeared, and a dimensional portal was open for them.

"Say, there's a timer on the screen." Ash said.

"I believe it's to say how long the portal will remain open." Zero said.

"Let's not waste any time then. Let's go!" The 64 entered the portal, and traveled back to Nintendo.

When they came out the other side, they saw Nintendo in the same shape it was before. Everyone again wondered if there was anyone alive down there, but suddenly, Link acted very shocked.

"Hey, Link, what's wrong? Link? Hello, Nintendo to Link, come in Link."

"Huh? Oh, what?"

"What do you mean what? You're the one all shocked and spacing out."

"Oh, it's nothing, I was just thinking about something. Hey, how about we head down to Hyrule? That's where both Peach and Zelda were."

"Peach....Fine, good of a place as any." Mario began descending towards Hyrule. At from their distance, it was only a green piece of land, but as they got closer, they could make out the mountains and forests. Closer yet, they could see buildings, but more importantly, buildings in one piece. The 64 was landing in the middle of Hyrule field, and to their surprise, there were hundreds of people from all different nations outside cheering. When they landed, they could hear the noise of many people happily cheering outside.

Everyone quickly ran to the door, and as it opened, they could see that everyone had come out to see them. They walked down out of the ship amongst the crowd, and they began shouting in unison.

"Hooray for the heroes! Hooray for the heroes!"

"Me? A Hero?" Ash doubted himself. Surely they weren't cheering for him. He hadn't done anything heroic.

"Of course you're a hero!"

"But I didn't do anything."

"Of course you did! Remember that star you gave me? I wouldn't have beaten Karlnak if it weren't for you!"

"Oh, yeah, but still, that wasn't anything."

"Come on! What about back there when you faced against the guardians of the keys? We would never have even gotten the Nintendo 64 if it weren't for you!" Sonic said.

"Really? Hey, Pikachu, do you think I am?"

"Pikapika!"

"Ha ha ha!" As the crowd cheered, they saw Peach and Zelda.

"Peach!" Mario ran to see Peach, who in return kissed him.

"Thank you, Mario! You've saved us all!"

"Zelda, it's good to see you again."

"You too, Link."

"Hey, how come you're all alive? We saw the CDs blast the heck out of Nintendo!" Mario asked.

"Well, when you left, Zelda and I thought that we should try to warn everyone about the attacks. We had trouble getting people to believe us about people attacking us from an alternate dimension, but when both Kanto and Johto was attacked, we got more people to believe us. By the time you unlocked the Nintendo 64, we managed to inform most of the planet about the danger. Before the CDs did their final attack, most everyone had taken shelter. I'm sure not everyone survived, but most did. There's a lot that was destroyed, but we can always rebuild."

"Hey, you knew then! You told us to come here!" Mario said to Link.

"Yeah. When we came out of the portal, Zelda contacted me telepathically, but told me not to tell you so it can be a surprise."

"So that's why you acted surprised. Well, I'm just glad you're all okay."

"Hey, don't forget about me!"

"Luigi? Luigi!" As Luigi came out from the crowd and found Mario, they both embraced each other.

"Why do you always go out on adventures without me, huh?"

"I'm sorry, but we couldn't just come and get you."

"Hey, I'm just messing with you! Ha ha!"

"Sonic!" Sonic turned around to see Amy rushing out to grab him. She quickly hugged Sonic and started to cry.

"Oh, Sonic, I was so worried about you."

"Hey, don't cry Amy; I'm okay." Sonic then saw Tails and Knuckles.

"Tails! Knuckles!"

"Sonic! I'm happy you're okay!"

"You came to see me too, Knuckles?"

"I just came to see if you survived." Knuckles teased.

"Heh, figures."

"But seriously, you did good, Sonic."

"Hey, shouldn't we be giving a welcome worth while for our heroes? Come on, let's celebrate!" As Drunia said this, some Gorons and Kokiri began playing music ). Everyone from all the nations of Nintendo celebrated their victory against the Zox, and their heroes were the guests of honor.

As Tails was dancing to the music, he noticed that Sonic was missing. He started hovering above the crowd to get a good view, and saw him on a small hill away from everyone. He flew over to him to see what was wrong.

"Hey Sonic, how come you're over here?"

"They're still out there, you know."

"The Zox? Come on, Sonic, we finally gave Karlnak what he deserved!"

"We might have gotten rid Karlnak, but there are still Zox out there. Their species extend through the dimensions, and there's still planets out there that are under their control."

"You're thinking about Mobius, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"But hey, the Zox would be crazy to try to go against the Nintendo 64 again! Besides, if they ever show their ugly heads here again, we'll be ready for them!"

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." Sonic and Tails then walked back to the celebration.

Peace had once again returned dimension N, and the war that they came to call the Dimensional War was over. Everyone was able to have a peace of mind knowing that they wouldn't have to fear destruction from an alien race. With the help of an ancient ship called the Nintendo 64, they were able to rid their selves of this evil. Who had built and why was unknown, but it was a miracle that they could use such a powerful weapon.

Peace had come to dimension N, but for some unknown reason, there always seems to be some strange twist of fate in this land that makes peace short lived.

* * *

And that, my friends, is the last of The N Wars. Thank you very, very much for continually reading this CrazyChocoboGirl! 


End file.
